


Stan vs. The Future

by BubuBORG



Series: Team Medi: Gravity and Time [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gravity Falls, Multi-Fandom, SilverHawks, Star Trek, TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/M, Gen, Grunks in the Future!, Grunks! In! Space!, M/M, Original Character(s), Star Trek Universe, Time Skips, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-08-13 06:38:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7966384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubuBORG/pseuds/BubuBORG
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Starfleet Captain Reid spends his shore leave visiting his sister Joy in Pinesville, Oregon.  The mystery of her new home turns out to be more than they bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 21st Century Man

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first post to AO3. I've been writing in this universe since I was 11 and drawing the stories in notebooks. with any luck I'll post more stories from the TM universe here. 
> 
> Of course all Characters ©their respective creators.

_**21st Century Man** _

 

 

_Captain’s Log, Stardate 46525.1_

_Even when a starship captain isn’t assigned an exploration mission, it’s always a wonderful thing to bring a ship back to home port.  The_ Mediterranean _has docked over Earth.  After the events of the last few months, my crew have earned a week or two of leave._

 

The _Mediterranean_ was docked in Earth Spacedock.  Almost half of the crew were on shore leave or furlough.  The corridors of the _Excelsior-class_ ship was more crowded than usual as crewmen and officers scurried for the transporter rooms and main gangway, duffel sacks slung over their shoulders.  And the captain of the ship, Adam Reid III, was no different.  He was accompanied by his first officer.

 

“Oregon?” 

Commander Buffi K’gar walked with Adam as he made his way to the transporter room.  A puzzled look was on her face.  “What’s in Oregon?”

“Joy’s living there right now,” Adam explained. “I never get to visit her and Mike.”  He smiled and had a slightly faraway look.  “This is my first chance to meet Théodred.”

Buffi smiled, her pointy canines jutting out.  They entered the transporter room, where Goramar was waiting.  “How does it feel, being an uncle?”

“I’m hoping this visit will let me find out,” Adam replied.  “What about you?”

“Well, the honeymoon’s over,” Buffi sighed.  “But I think Raph and I have another few days of being together to endure.”

“Well, you do your best to forbear,” Adam smiled.  “And…ah.  There she is.”

The door opened, and a woman with dark hair and a bright yellow jacket walked in.  “All packed!” she exclaimed.

“April!” Buffi exclaimed.  “I didn’t know you were aboard?”  It was a surprise at the wedding to have April O’Neil as Adam’s date.  After Erin, Adam had kept his personal life to himself for awhile.  While the boys were mixed in their feelings, Buffi was all for it.  

“Just in time to join your captain.  I haven’t been in Portland in centuries!” 

“Well…okay.  I’ll see you when you get back,” Buffi said.  

“Don’t blow up my ship,” Adam warned her.  He was kidding.  Mostly.

 

The Pacific Northwest was lush.  The buildings of downtown Portland were shining, but not too tall, and as Adam and April traveled by autocab from the transit center in Rose Quarter, they noticed.  Trees everywhere.  Within the last few decades, city planners managed to get giant redwoods growing within the city limits, mostly to take up the space that used to be extraneous streets.  The hope was that eventually even larger trees, like Sequoias, would be introduced, creating a cityscape in which trees dwarfed buildings in the skyline.  

Christmastime alone would make it worth it.

Eventually, though, the autocab started to hit the open road.  April frowned.

“I thought your sister lived in Portland,” she said.

“Not quite.  Some place south of here, downriver,” Adam replied.  

 

Then the cab took a left.  Going through forest lanes, many of which were crumbling from disuse, but it was a beautiful scenic ride for Adam and April as the sun filtered through the trees late in the day.  It was June on Earth, and the trees were at their greenest, and the sun turned everything gold.  April settled into Adam’s shoulder as the ride went on.

“Hey,” April said after a moment.  “That looks like an old water tower.”

The cab stopped.  The two got out and looked around.   “I’m no expert,” April said, shielding her eyes from the sun, “But I think we traveled back to the 1950’s.”  A bracket of small stores surrounded a modest town hall.  The shrubbery was well trimmed and the town was fairly pleasant in its arrangement.  April looked and was able to see writing on the water tower in the distance.  

“Huh.  I guess we’re in—“ She didn’t get to finish.

“WELCOME TO PINESVILLE!”  shouted a voice behind them.  Adam barely had a chance to react when he was practically tackled.  

“Gah!” Adam barely was able catch his breath.  “Joy!”  

“I can’t believe you’re here!” Joy said, almost as breathless.  

Adam disengaged from her hug of steel. “I can’t believe _you're_ here either!” He looked over his sister.  As bubbly as ever, and with features as round and kind as ever, she wore a white linen shirt with olive slacks.  Her long hair still had bangs in front.  “Where did you find this little place?” he asked.

“That’s…kind of why I wanted you to visit,” Joy said.  “Oh…you’re not alone.”

April waved awkwardly.  “Hi.  I’m April.”

Joy refrained from hugging, but took April’s waving hand in her own.  “It’s so nice to meet you!  This is—“

Michael Gamling, a distinguished older man with an impressive mustache and cowboy hat, was behind Joy.  He also held the baby tote.  “Hi Adam.”

Adam’s face filled with mischief.  “Hey there…Uncle Mike.”

Mike’s eyes narrowed.  “I thought we agreed you’d stop calling me that.”

“I can’t help it.  Your actual niece has me hooked,” Adam replied with a laugh.  

“Okay, Chuckles, come here and say hi to your actual nephew,” Mike said, beckoning with his free hand.  He lifted the tote up and Adam peered in.  Little Théodred was dormant, his eyes closed.  

“Don’t be fooled by his little innocent act,” Joy told him, putting a finger in to stroke the baby’s cheek.  “When he hollers, I swear, I think I hear stampedes outside.”

“Outside, where, exactly?” Adam asked.  

 

***

 

It was a cabin in the woods.

Adam and April looked up at it.  It had a dark, stained wooden exterior, a high, pointed roof and a weathervane.  It looked ancient.  

“I’ve seen enough horror movies to know what happens next,” April said.  

“The totem pole’s a nice touch, though,” Adam replied.  

Joy and Mike came up alongside them.  “I know what you’re thinking, but you gotta see the inside,” Joy reassured them.  They stepped onto the porch and went inside through the screen door.  “I gotta say, though,” April remarked, “It’s nice to see doors on hinges again.”

She led them into the front room.  It was spacious, and contained what looked to be Joy’s engineering workshop, with a drafting desk and computer terminal and what looked like two work tables, one of which was covered in a tarp.  “When we got the place, It looked like some kind of shop was there,” Joy explained as she led them through the living room with comfortable chairs upholstered in burgundy with an angular staircase leading upstairs.

“A shop?” April asked.  “This far out in the boonies?”

Joy shrugged.  “The lady that arranged the transfer of property didn’t have much answers for me.  That’s kind of what I wanted you to help me with, Adam.”

They settled in the kitchen by the back door, with a small dining table.  She replicated them cups of tea and, while Mike recused himself to put the baby down to sleep upstairs, the other three sat down.

“I know how you tend to be drawn to weird little tales,” Joy finally said.  

“You’re kind of the same these days,” Adam replied, and took a sip of his tea.  “You’ve logged into the Legacy database almost nonstop in the last few years.”

Joy ignored him for the moment and turned to April.  “April, I know you’re a…how do I say this…refugee from the 20th century?”

April nodded.  “You could say that, yeah.”

“…And I know you told me that you’ve visited Oregon before,” Joy continued.  “Did you notice the water tower coming into town?”

April at that moment looked very suspicious.  “This place wasn’t always called Pinesville, was it?”

Joy shook her head.  “Nope.  And maybe you heard of it, I’m hoping?”  

She got up and went to the cupboard and took out an ancient, chipped coffee mug.  She put it down in the center of the table for Adam and April to look at.  April’s eyes widened.  “I don’t believe it.”

Adam was slightly annoyed for being out of the conversation.  “What is it?”

“I _have_ been here before!” April exclaimed.  

Adam looked at the mug.  Faded though it was, he could clearly see the name in big block letters on it.

 

WELCOME TO GRAVITY FALLS!

 

Adam’s eyelids lowered.  “A little on the nose, isn’t it?”

“The name isn’t important,” Joy pressed on.  “Gravity Falls allegedly was one of those places _you’re_ always excited to find!  Like Sunnydale!  Or Cleveland!”

“So you’re saying you’ve moved to a Hellmouth?” Adam said.  

“That doesn’t sound particularly safe,” April mused.

“Ah, what do I care.  My husband knows how to swing a broadsword,” Joy sighed.  

“But if this is Gravity Falls…” April said.  “Could this place be…?”

Joy beamed.  “I think it is!  I think I’m living in the actual Mystery Shack!”  The two exchanged a little squeal, while Adam’s brow furrowed.  Joy tried to explain.

“It’s like in Ohio…You remember the Blue Hole?”

“Okay?” Adam said, still a bit lost.

“Mystery Hill?”

“Oh, I get it,” Adam said, throwing his head up in amusement.  “It was an old tourist trap.”

 

“So have you done any actual investigating?” he asked Joy.

“Between feedings?  Are you kidding?” Joy replied.  “All I can tell you is that we moved in not too long after I had the baby.  The house itself has been retrofitted to run on the planetary grid about a century ago, but it hasn’t really been lived in for long.  Research has been inconclusive and fragmentary.”

“So it’s literally a mystery shack,” Adam said, waggling his eyebrows.  

“Do you want to explore my home or not?” Joy sighed.

“Well, you have me for a week,” Adam said, “And then it’s either back to Arda or possibly Bajor, depending on how the winds are blowing.”

 

Joy put April and Adam up in the room in the attic.  Separate beds, of course.  Which was fine.  Adam was up first, and forwent breakfast to get right to it.  In true Starfleet manner, he identified a perimeter and tromped into the forest to explore, tricorder in hand.  He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, exactly.  Subspace anomalies, some kind of tetryon radiation, any kind of quantum activity, honestly.  The forest was nice and quiet; not too much activity in the brush, with the occasional blue jay or blackbird calling out.  The paths seemed a bit ingrown, which made Adam wonder how long ago the last human had wandered around out there.  He kept strolling, looking up through the branches of the trees when his shin hit something with a _klang_ and he stumbled.  Cursing as he hopped to keep his balance, he looked down.

It was an S.  A four foot long letter S, covered in moss and dirt, he picked it up.  Expecting the rusty letter to be made of metal, he was surprised to find it was some kind of plastic.  

“So it’s that color on purpose,” He said aloud.  “S…as in Shack?  as in Mystery Shack.”

He set it aside, ostensibly to bring back to the house.  “Shack without an S is…” And at that, Adam began to laugh.  “Hack.  I can’t wait to find out who ran this place.” As he placed the letter sign right side up along a tree trunk, he saw something else…

Not exactly something.  More like the lack of something, like an object picked up and its shape preserved beneath it.  A lack of brush or leaves, just forest soil.

Something…triangular in shape.  Adam shrugged.  

That’s when his tricorder gave a signal.  He looked down at his device to see what it was picking up.  

“Oh.  That’s not usual,” he murmured.  _At least not for Earth._

 

Adam returned with his giant S in tow.  “So…I found this?”

Joy was sitting with the baby on the porch.  “That…is going in the nursery.”

“I don’t think you spell ‘Théodred’ with an S,” Adam said.

“Think all the other letters are out there?” Joy asked.  

“There’s something out there,” Adam said.  “Not only did I find some kind of low level subspace field, I also picked up some rare traces of alloys, including mediterranium.

“Native to your beloved Arda, yes?” Joy said, continuing her nursing.

“Yep,” Adam said with a nod.  “Maybe a ship crash-landed here a few centuries ago, and it’s still humming, and messing with the locals.

“I’ve read enough horror novels to know what happens next,” Joy said.

“So maybe I’ll survey the town—“

Joy’s face lit up.  “Did you bring the thing?”

He absently put his hand in his pocket.  “Maybe.”

“Mega.  Just…try not to scare the locals.”

 

 

Even after all these years since her days with the guys, April never really stopped being a night owl.  So when she rose at ten in the morning, it wasn't entirely her choice.  She had the vaguest sense of a conversation going on outside, and then heard a man—Adam?—shouting.  

“ARMOR UP!”

And after that she was not only awake but jolted out of bed by a terrific noise, as if someone had launched a few dozen M-80 fireworks outside her window.

“I’M UP I’m…up?” She exclaimed as she got up off the floor.  She quickly put on the slippers she brought with her and ran down the stairs to the back porch.  She saw Joy with the baby there and—

“Missed him,” Joy yawned.  

“Damn,” April sighed.  “Guess I’ll check for secret rooms.”

 

Pinesville lay below Adam as he soared in his Silverhawk armor.  It was at this angle that he could see a wall-shaped rock formation beyond the town, not unlike the Nan Curuniri that surrounded Orthanc back on Arda.  However, there was a crack in that wall—two to be exact, and a gap, which was bridged by, well, a bridge.

Nothing about the rock formation looked natural.  Something broke through.  If he assumed that something crashed through the rock wall, then the trajectory would bring it to rest…

He looked down.

“Bingo.”

There were a number of spaceship designs in the Alpha Quadrant that could be called saucer-shaped (The Vulcans were partial to toroidal warp engines themselves) so it could be possible that a ship crash-landed here at some point.  How long ago would require an expedition under that hill.  And he wasn’t entirely sure he should go in there alone.

“Hi.”

Adam yelped despite himself, and despite being encased in SilverHawk armor.  He pivoted in his hovering position and saw a blond, ruddy-faced man, stocky yet well built, roughly his age, his eyes slightly glowing, hovering himself, fiery energy projecting from his lower half.

“Josh!” 

It was Joshua Maurice, his oldest friend and former first officer.  “I thought you were stuck along the Cardassian border!”

“The _Tomcat_ was summoned to Earth along with the _Cairo_.  Starfleet Command had some more questions about my role in the Minos Korva affair.”

“Let’s touch down…preferably on that hill.”

It was a rather round grassy hill that Adam chose.  The wind tossed the mowed blades of grass back and forth.  The two landed and Adam de-armored.  “How’d you find me, anyway?” 

“I didn’t.  I came to pay respects to my nephew.”

“Théodred is _my_ nephew.  He’s your…whatever he is to you might require more math than I can summon right now.”

“Nope, it’s real simple,” Josh explained.  “Mike Gamling said that the two of us were as good as brothers, and that means that your nephew is my nephew.”

 After a moment of glaring at Josh, Adam sighed.  “Help me find a weak point on this hill.”

“This is a nice little town,” Josh mused.  “I was in town and there is a really nice diner, and—“

Adam pointed his tricorder down toward the ground of the grassy hill.  “There’s an ancient starship crashed within this hill,” He explained. 

“Crashed from where—ohhhh,” Josh lowed as he saw the bridge.  “Kind of obvious from this angle.”

So we’re looking for maybe a hatch, or someplace we can phaser through, or…”

 

“Adam!”

 

***

 

“So Josh is in town?”  April sighed.  this wasn’t quite going the way she expected.  

Joy had put the baby in his little chair in the living room next to her, While April stood by the doorway.  

“I’m sorry sweetie,” Joy said, sympathetically.  “I have a good idea what this trip meant to you.”

“I mean…he’s your brother,” April sighed.  She crossed the room and sat across from Joy.  “And…he’s one of the most genuine, open guys I’ve ever met.  He’s not uptight, he’s not gross, he’s…”

Joy stuck her with a look.  “You were hoping to find out what’s wrong with him?”

“Yes!” April exclaimed, throwing her arms up.  “Like I said, he’s your brother…can you tell me anything?”

“Hmm,” Joy screwed up her face in thought.  Théodred babbled in his chair.  “The problem is, the context of him being annoying as my brother may not translate to him as a boyfriend.”

“He doesn’t. Even. Snore!” April huffed.  

“Do you want to date my brother?” Joy asked.

“I want to know that it’s _real_ ,” April countered. 

Joy leaned in toward April. “Here’s an annoying trait for you.  Adam Reid is extremely protective of his kid sister.  If he trusts you enough to let you visit with me, believe me…It’s real.”

 

 

Josh was halfway down the hatch when Adam heard his name.  He followed suit.  

"I'm assuming you brought your tricorder," Josh drawled.  The surfaces were a matte metallic, and not a little aged.  Dim blue light seemed to emanate from some unknown source.  Josh jumped down from the ladder first, then Adam.  

"April's going to wish you took her along for this," Josh noted.

Adam's head whipped around.  "Who told--?"  He sighed.  "Joy."

"Good ol' Stinkerbelle," Josh said.  "However would I know the family gossip without her?"

"Like moving to a strange--and I mean strange-- town because of reports of goings on?"  

"Hey, it's been seven years since she tagged along with us to Limbo," Josh said. 

"It just feels irresponsible," Adam sighed.  

"Which way?" Josh asked. 

"Down here," Adam indicated with his tricorder.  

Josh looked at what looked like a dormant machinery chamber that was more than a little cavernous. "Down there, huh?"

Adam armored back up and turned his leg jets on to hover down.  "This way!" 

Josh did likewise.  The two kept on through the ship, all the while trying to get a bead on the origin of the ship.  

"It's thousands of years old," Adam noted.  "But I can't think of any ancient spacefaring civilizations that it could belong to."

"Iconians?" Josh asked.  "Promellians?"

"It could be as old as the dinosaurs," Adam mused.  "It could even come from outside our galaxy!"

"When you make your report to Starfleet," Josh chided, "Maybe not so much speculation."

Adam sighed.  "Starfleet's gonna decend on Pinesville like locusts when I make the report," he noted.  "Maybe I should remember I'm not _actually_ on duty."

"Hey, whaddaya know," Josh said, "I'm not on duty either."

"Josh," Adam said, his words sharp.  "Right here."

Their presence caused a wall to open up in front of them, revealing a chamber of glowing cylindrical chambers.  The one in the center glowed with bright blue energy.  The floor was littered with papers. 

Adam took his tricorder to the cylinder while Josh picked up the pages.  "This is in English!" Josh exclaimed. "Handwritten, too!"

"What?" Adam said, still scanning.  "That means someone has been here before, but how long ago?"  

Josh read the first page.  

 

_To whomever reads this_

 

_I'm sorry that I cannot explain the situation in which you may find yourself as the result of my actions.  If you are here and have found this chamber and these pages, please, please know that what I have done was in the best interest of my brother and myself. I've made a bad habit of burning bridges in my past and, while I'd hoped to put that behind me, I fear I may have done so again.  If you are capable, please set him free.  Let him know that, in time, we will meet again.  I have made sure of that.  I cannot ensure my exact location but I can be found, given the data before you._

_Tell him that I am sorry and that I love him,_

_Stanford Pines,_

_Dec. 15, 2018_

_PS I can assure you that there are no living alien beings in this space craft.  Most likely._

 

 

Josh looked up from the page.  "There's somebody in that chamber!" 

"A stasis pod of some sort?" Adam asked.  "How long have they been in there?"

"According to Stanford Pines, here," Josh said, indicating the letter, "Over three hundred fifty years!"

"Pines...Pinesville??" Adam exclaimed.  "There had to be a reason Gravity Falls changed its name, and maybe whoever's in there knows why!"

"Well good luck!" Josh said, not a little sarcasm in his voice.  "Waking someone in stasis from alien technology is a crapshoot.  Maybe we should find your ship's doctor for an assist--"

"Dr. Ch'tra's on shore leave, just like half my crew is!" Adam shot back.  "If there's a power source, or control panel...". He brushed his hand against the glowing glass of the chamber, and wiped condensation off its surface.  Within, Adam could make out the features of a human male.  

Josh looked the chamber over. "If we don't revive him properly, we're gonna end up with about two hundred pounds of thawed hamburger," he muttered.

As he looked away, the panel lit up.  Adam rushed to the console and attempted to access. "Josh?  Josh, its happening!"

"Happening?  The status field's releasing?"

"It must have been linked to our proximity," Adam guessed.  "According to this, it's a pre-programmed sequence, and it's gonna be complete in...well, minutes."

"Can you access the rest of the ship's systems?" Josh asked.  

"The ship is in low power mode," Adam replied, shaking his head.  "This stasis chamber's using all the power allocated.  Now if we could get a compatible power source..."

"Never mind that.  Look!" Josh looked on in interest and worry.

The chamber door slid open, causing mist to fly out.  The blue light changed to green, and it spilled out as well, along with an object that had been dislodged in the chamber.  It rolled out onto the floor.

Adam went to pick it up and examined it.  Josh stared at it.  "Is...Is that a fez?"

 

While they examined the hat, they became aware of two sounds: One was a high pitched drone coming from outside the chamber.  The other was...snoring.  

Adam was about to smile and muse that most folks who come out of stasis are soundly asleep, but the droning noise became louder and more insistent.  Josh's hands and eyes started to glow, the kinetic field he was able to create within his body focusing on his fists.  

Adam's eyes narrowed.  "GAUNTLETS," he commanded, and the SilverHawk device on his belt complied, creating only Armor over his fists.  From the palm of his armored hand, a device shone out.  "CELEBELIAN", he commanded again, and seemingly from thin air, he produced his blade.  The Silver Star.  

"Mostly dead?" Josh joked.

"Only mostly," Adam replied, and the two went to work demolishing what must have been an ancient automated defense system.  Between Josh's powers, and Adam's gauntlets, they were a little bit stronger than the average Starfleet captains.  Keeping it under wraps, of course kept Starfleet from asking too many awkward questions.  

The spherical devices were now battered and dented, and on the ground.  From behind them, the snoring seemingly continued.  They turned back to the man in the chamber.  

It was a human, looking to be about in his late 20s or early 30s, dressed in an undershirt and striped boxer shorts.  His hair was brown and fluffy, and a pair of eyeglasses perched on his hawkish, pinkish nose.  

"How are we gonna get him out of here?" Josh asked.  

Adam sighed, and tapped his commbadge.  "Reid to _Mediterranean_ ,"

Aldor's voice was slightly staticky, but clear.  "This is Aldor, Captain.  Is everything all right?"

"Commander, I'm gonna need a transport from my location to another terrestrial set of coordinates," Adam explained.  Three to transport."

Transporter Chief Goramar cut in.  "Your signal is slightly faint," he told them.  "I might have to do some boosting operations to get you there.  That might extend transport time."

"Are you sure you don't want to transport to the Medi, Captain?" Aldor asked.  "Is there a medical emergency?"

Adam pursed his lips.  He really did not want to subject Stanford Pines's brother, whatever his name was, to that kind of shock just yet.  "That won't be necessary, It'k," He told his Andorian Ops Manager.  "However, I'd like you to stand by in case I need to call on you."

"As you wish, sir.  Aldor out."

"Energize, Mr. Goramar," Adam commanded.

As warned, the transport felt leisurely, and Adam and Josh (and the unconscious Mr. Pines) were in the yard in front of Joy's Shack.  

April ran to them.  "Who is that?"  She asked.

"We'll find out once he wakes up.  Joy!" 

"Put him on the couch in the library,” She told them.  

 

April noticed that Adam’s shoulder was scuffed.  “Are you okay?” she asked, examining.  “You’re bleeding.”

Adam absently looked.  “Oh.  Must have gotten a little close to that…Security drone?”

“Sounds about right,” Josh cut in.  “Joy, do you have a derm—“

“Dermal regenerator, coming right up,” Joy said, heading up the stairs.

“Did not expect to battle today,” Adam sighed, and smiled at April.  “Sorry.”

“I’m glad you guys are okay,” She replied, then punched him in his wounded shoulder, eliciting a high pitched, “OW!”  

“What the hell?” Adam exclaimed.  

“That’s for not getting me up this morning,” April said.  “I thought this was going to be an ‘us’ thing.”

Adam pouted slightly.  “I said I was sorry.”

“Just going off, that’s just…” April trailed off, then brightened.  “Really annoying!”

Adam gave her a look.  “You are a unique woman.”

“Okay, let me see,” Joy said, holding the healing device.  Off with your shirt.”

Adam complied, pulling the tunic off, revealing a scratched, contused shoulder and trapezius. 

“That’s not so bad,” Joy clucked.  “Let me just…there, all better.

April looked at him being doted on by his sister, his posture slouched, his expression that of embarrassment.  She smiled, placed a hand on his other shoulder, and placed a kiss on his cheek.  His face turned pink.

“Um?” Josh spoke up.  “This is cute and all, but who is this?”

Mike came in, holding Theo.  “I have a good idea.  Let’s crowd around him so he can wake up screaming.”

“Mike’s right.  Let’s just…have some lunch, and wait for him to wake up,” Adam sighed.

Joy grabbed a blanket to put over the sleeping stranger, and the five of them went back to the kitchen for coffee and sandwiches.  

“Maybe we’re going about this wrong,” April suggested.  “Maybe we should find out who Stanford Pines is first.”

“His name doesn’t ring any bells for you, I don’t suppose, April?” Josh asked.  “Out of all of us, you’ve lived closest to his era.”

“I mean…” April murmured.  “It sounds like a name I should remember.  I had to be research girl for the Guys during a lot of their misadventures, so maybe…”

“Oh, hey, I got this for you,” Adam said, and popped the fez on her head.  

“What in the world…?”  She exclaimed, taking the hat off and examining it.  “Adam Reid, did you take that man’s hat?!”

“He’s not currently in need of a hat,” Adam countered.  

April got up abruptly.  “That is not the point!  The man was stripped to his underwear and this hat, which means this had some kind of meaning to him, and it needs to be next to him when he—“

As she walked, fez in hand, back to the library, she was blocked by the man.  The blanket was draped over him, his glasses in his hand.  April was too shocked to do anything but to hold out the fez at him, which he took with his free hand.  Adam, Josh, Mike and Joy peered from the kitchen table, As the man’s mouth started to work, clearing his throat, and they anticipated what he was about to say.

 

“What the fuck you people doing in my kitchen?”

 

 


	2. Yours Truly, 2369

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Stanley Pines realizes that he's awakened in the distant future everything goes as well as could be expected.

**_Yours Truly, 2369_ **

 

“Come to think of it,” the man demanded, “What are you people doing in my _house_?”

“ _Your_ house?” Joy countered.  “Listen, I think you need to sit down, Mr.”

“My NAME,” the man bellowed, “Is STANLEY PINES!  And you are in my fucking _house_!”

He looked around the kitchen, and squinted.  “None of this is my stuff.  It’s my kitchen, but my fridge is gone, and my table…”  He bolted from the room.  Adam and Josh raced after him.  

He went back to the library.  “The carpet’s gone,” he muttered.  He went back to the living room.  “The TV.  The fucking dinosaur skull!”

“Mister Pines!” Adam called.  “If you’d just take a moment to sit, we can—“

“The Museum!” He cried.  “What is all this shit doing in my house?  Where’s Soos?  What’s he done here?”

“Mister Pines, please,” Adam pleaded.  

“Fine, fine.  Let’s start with you, buddy.  Who are you?”

Adam held up his hands placatingly.  “My name is Adam Reid.  This is Josh.  We found you in a chamber just outside of this town.” He took a step and gingerly took Stanley’s arm.  “I really think you should sit down, and get calmed down.  We can make you some tea, or whatever you’d like, and tell you everything we know.”

Stanley looked unsure, confused.  “Yeah, sure.  A cup of tea.  Or something stronger.”

Adam smiled.  “We’ll see what she’s got.”

They got Stanley back to the kitchen table and Mike let him have his seat.  Joy brought the old mug filled with chamomile tea and put it in front of him.  “Just relax,” she told him.  “We are your friends here.  My name is Joy, and this is my husband Mike.”

Mike smiled and waved from behind him, his mustache curving up.  “Hi…I gotta check on the baby,” he said to Joy.  From somewhere upstairs, Theo could be heard fussing. 

Joy nodded, and squeezed his hand in parting.  

Stanley looked at Joy.  “This is your house.”

She nodded.  “For about nine months.”

“Please, Mr. Pines,” Adam began.

“Mister Pines is my Pops’ name,” Stanley waved him off.  “Call me Stan.”

“I’d really like to help you, so if you could tell me anything you remember before we got you out?”

“Ford,” Stan muttered.  “It would have to be him.”

Adam frowned.  “Ford—as in Stanford?”

Stan nodded.  “I don’t remember much—everything is so fuzzy.  I’m not no spring chicken anymore.”

Joy frowned at that, as did April.  She spoke up next.  “You said this used to be your home.  When exactly was that?”

Stan pursed his lips, and frowned himself.  “That’s wierd.  Anyway, I lived here about…thirty years.  From ’82 until…well, I’d technically relocated, but…2013?”

“So, your entire life, I’m guessing,” April said, slightly confused.  Something wasn’t adding up.

Stan’s face mirrored April’s.  “Come on, guys.  You’re _dying_ to tell me.  What year is it?”

There was a moment of awkward silence and shuffling feet.  Adam spoke up first.  “Take a sip of your tea first.”

“Oh Jesus,” Stan sighed.  He looked like he was girding himself for the news.  “What fucking year?”

“By your calendar,” Adam said, “It’s the year Twenty-three Sixty-nine.”

“The fuck outta here,” Stan cursed.  “Now I _know_ I need something stronger.”  He sucked down the tea anyway, but not before glancing at the mug.  “Huh.”

“Now I figure that’s gonna be a shock,” Adam began,” 

“Really?  You _figure_?” Stan said.  His voice was quavering slightly.  “I gotta give you credit; you weren’t _trying_ to give a man my age a heart attack—“

“Man your age?” April asked.  “How old are you?”

“Sweetie, I’m gonna turn 70 this year,” Stan said.  “Like you can’t tell, I’m an old fogey.”

 

Stan found himself in his old bathroom, with three young people getting him to look in the mirror.  “What the…” he began.  He put his hands over his face, and then stuck a finger in his mouth.  “They’re real.”  To their confused looks.  “I wore dentures.  Life like I led, you get your teeth knocked in.”

“So let me see if I got this straight,” Adam said.  “You were 69 years old when whatever happened to get you in stasis, happened.

“I’m _still_ 69!” Stanley exclaimed. “Don’t let the face fool you!”

“Well, technically,” Josh chimed in, “You’re more like 420.”

Stan turned and pointed at him.  No comeback came to him.  

It was decided that Stan would sleep in the attic, with Adam keeping an eye on him.  April took the couch.  Josh took his leave of the group.

“Let me know how this ends,” he told Adam, as he walked outside to take off back to San Francisco.

Stan was given the letter written by Ford.  He shook his head and put the pages aside.  by that point, the chamomile had done its work, and he was asleep.  Adam began to study the pages himself.  Much of what was written seemed to be in a kind of code, something that he would maybe have the ship’s computer decipher in the morning.  

 

***

 

The next morning, the call went out for some clothes for Stanley.  The _Mediterranean_ took the call; Aldor had the quartermaster send down some coveralls for the moment.  Soon after breakfast (Pancakes with honey, by request), And after some cajoling, April was up.

“So your friend Adam tells me you’re like me,” Stan said.

April wasn’t fully awake without her coffee.  “Um?”

“You know, got stuck in the future.”

“Oh! Oh, yeah.”

“So maybe you can tell me what happens.”

“It was a shock at first,” April told him, “But I had friends that helped me though it.”

“Oh.”  

April smiled. “I have a confession.”

Stan looked up. 

“I was actually here before.”

“Before…?”  Stan might have needed his first cup of coffee as well.

“It was 1989,” April explained.  “Me and my sister Robyn came up this way, and we all but stumbled into Gravity Falls.  Oh my _God_ ,” Her hands fell to her sides as she stared at him.  Stan had his glasses on, which helped.  “It _was_ you, wasn’t it?”

April could see the man before her as a little older, with a broad crimson necktie with a gold question mark on it. She chuckled.  “Heh.  That was a whole ‘nother lifetime ago for me.”

“So did, um, J-Joy say anything about finding all the rooms?” Stan stammered.  “Because I think I can help you out.”

They walked into the large room that used to hold Stan’s museum.  “Do you remember any of it?” He asked April.  “I canvassed every taxidermist in the tri-county area, and grabbed all of their leftover parts.  “With a little Bondo and the right lighting, I could make you believe anything.  More importantly,” he added with a wink, “I could make you pay for it.”

Currently, the old museum space housed lots of Joy’s cyber-hardware.  “What kind of mad scientist is that chick, anyway?” Stan asked.  

“Adam tells me she designs robots,” April answered.  “She turned the gift shop into her design studio.”

“Gift shop,” Stan muttered.  Then his eyes flew open.  No need for coffee this morning!  He grabbed April’s hand and exclaimed, “Come on, kid!  I’ll bet you she never found it!  Adam!”  He shouted at the whole house.  “Joy!”

 

They stared at the thing. It was a big empty box with a dusty window with rows of coils inside.  “A vending machine?” Joy asked.  “I thought that’s what it was! The lady who secured the transfer of property—“

“Let’s see if this still works,” Stan rubbed his hands together.  He touched the keys on the side, their numbers long worn away, in the pattern of a C. “A-1, B, C, three,” he muttered.  Then he stood back.  He turned to Joy and grinned.  “If I’m right, I just increased the value of your home like 200%!”

The box moved, on a hidden hinge, causing Adam and Joy to jump back. Joy had a beatific look on her face.  “ _Finally_.”

Behind the box was a stairway.  Stan led them down the stairs, where he found himself with a surprise.  

It appeared to be a lift door.  Beside the door was a black shiny panel.  It didn’t remotely look 400 years old.

“This wasn’t here before,” He said, and frantically looked all around.  

Adam spoke up.  “This is actually new.” 

Stan and Joy turned, waiting for an explanation.  “Joy, this is a standard LCARS panel. Chances are you have at least two in your workshop.”

Stan regarded the panel.  He raised a hand to the smooth black surface, but hesitated.

“I have a hunch, Stan, that this has been waiting for you to open,” Adam said.

April and Joy exchanged a look.  

Stan touched the panel, and without any further security measures, an elevator door opened up.”

“That’s it?” April said.

“Guess so,” answered Stan.

“That’s 24th Century technology,” Joy said, puzzled.  “That means someone’s been here before I even got the house!”

“Yeah, well, three guesses who it was,” Stan muttered, “And the first two don’t count.”

The elevator went down for a few minutes.  Adam noted that Stan seemed unsure, as if he didn’t know anymore where the elevator would take him.  Then he turned to Adam.  “ _El Cars_?”

“Hmm?” 

“That’s what you said, _El Cars_.  Spanish?”

Adam shook his head.  “No, it’s an abbreviation for the standard operating system in Starfleet computers.  ‘Library Computer Access and Retrieval System’.”  

“Oh.” Apparently satisfied, they took the elevator down in silence.  

 

The third sub-basement was where the elevator stopped.  Stan noticed something in Adam’s hand.  It was pointy at one end.  He didn’t need to know anything about the 24th Century to know what it was. 

Stan was expecting a room filled with equipment he barely understood, filled with gauges and blinking lights.  He was also expecting the wreckage of the—

But all of that was gone.  

“Oh, my gosh!” Joy ran up to one of the many objects that now filled her new basement.  “Is that a Tyrannosaur skull?”

Stan looked around.  His mouth gaped open.

“It’s…It’s all my stuff.”

The four of them wandered around, and it became clear that all of the Mystery Shack’s exhibits had been moved, in addition to all of Stanley’s furnishings and personal belongings.  April walked up to Stanley and popped his fez back on his head. As he took notice of the hat, she smiled warmly and told him, “Don’t you think we’ve earned the full tour?” 

Stan’s back was to her, but she could see his shoulders heaving.  He took the fez off his head, and buried his face into it.  Slowly, he fell to his knees, silently sobbing.

Adam and Joy immediately went to him, their empathic senses reading his hurt.  April stepped back, alarmed.  “I…?” She stammered.  “I didn’t…”

Stan was now almost in a fetal position on the floor.  “They’re all gone,” he whispered.  “All of them.  Everyone I know is dead.”  

Adam and Joy looked at each other. It became clear that the shock had finally hit him.    Joy sighed and nodded. She knelt down by Stan’s sobbing form, and touched his cheek.  “We’re here.  It’s okay.  You can stay here with me for as long as you need.” 

“They lived, they grew old, and they died, and they’re buried somewhere,” Stan continued.  Tears streamed down his face.  “And I should have been too.  In Jersey.  I told him I wanted to be buried in Jersey with Ma and Pops.” He sighed and smiled ruefully.  “Why doesn’t he ever listen to me?”

Adam frowned, and stood back up.  “All your things…should be hundreds of years old,” He began.  

“Unless they were placed in stasis along with Stan,” Joy finished.  

Stan wiped his nose on the sleeve of his coveralls.  “He left them for me, the son of a bitch,” he cursed.  “He stuck me here.  No explanation, other than ‘for my own good’.  That is just like him, that superior assumption that he knows what’s best!”  

Joy went up to the dinosaur skull.  There was a polished surface on the top.  She slowly turned to Stan.  “You used this as a _table_?”

Stan, still holding himself together, nodded.  

“This is going in the living room,” She whispered, conspiratorially.

“ _Back_ in the living room, you mean,” Stan replied. “You said I could live here.  I guess you can have the stuff.”  He sat up and drew up his knees.  “It’s not like I have any use for it.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Adam said, and drew his attention to a suitcase.

 

***

 

“It just doesn’t fit the same,” Stan complained as they came back into the house.  “The old man clothes don’t work with the new bod.” It was a black suit with a white shirt and a red floppy tie.

“Hey,” Joy took Stan’s hand.  “I meant it, you know.  You can stay with me and Mike for as long as you want.”

“You’re sweet,” Stan said, and she launched into another one of her Attack Hugs. “I mean it,” Stan said, wheezing.  “You remind me of my niece.”

Joy’s face fell.  “I’m sorry.”

Stan squeezed her shoulder.  “It’s okay.  I just wish I knew what happened to them.  My baby brother Shermy, his wife, my nephew Neil and the kids, Mabel and Dipper.”

Adam blinked.  “Dipper?”

“Its a nickname, obviously,” Stan sighed.  “Mason.  His name was Mason.”

“I’m certain that between all of us,” Adam said to Joy and April, who lingered behind them, “We might be able to see if Stan has any living relatives.”

 

It was decided that within the next day or so, Joy and Stan would inventory everything in the basement, and see what if any space could be utilized by the young engineer.  Joy agreed to do a genealogical search, to see if Stan’s great-niece and nephew had any descendants.  April went back upstairs, which caught the notice of Stan and Adam both. Stan made eye contact with Adam as he was about to do the search, and cocked a thumb toward the stairs.  

Adam nodded, and went up after her.

 

He found April in the attic room, sitting on her bed.  Her hands were in her lap.  He sat down next to her and gingerly placed his hand on her shoulder. 

“Are you okay?” he asked.

April sighed.  Her eyes were shiny.  “It’s funny,” she began, “It’s funny how you never really get over the loss.”

“Your sister,” Adam said.

“Not…just my sister, Adam,” April said, wiping her eyes.  “I told you about my dad, right?”

“You said he was Ill,” Adam recollected.  “That he’d been for a long while.”

“That’s right.  And I left Robyn to deal with that all by herself,” She continued, “So I could have bizarro adventures with the Guys and Casey.”

“April…” Adam’s voice trailed off.  “It really…sucks.”

Her head cocked back upright. “Huh?”

“I just…wish I could be more useful to you.”

She turned her head, placed a hand on his cheek and moved in to kiss him.  Not with any kind of heat, but a sweet, gentle kiss.  She smiled, as the tears spilled onto her cheeks and told him, “You’re doing fine.”

“Adam!” Joy’s voice bubbled from downstairs.  

Adam moved to the top of the staircase, where Joy had scooped up Theo in her arms.

 

“My totem pole is a periscope!  Isn’t that MEGA?”


	3. The Way Life's Meant To Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joy and Stan inventory his life. Adam sees a man about a tablet. Adam and Joy look at old family photos.

**_The Way Life’s Meant To Be_ **

 

According to Joy’s and Stan’s inventory, Ford had left the two of them (Because at this point this was a joint venture for them) The entirety of the Mystery Shack’s contents.  There also seemed to be some items that belonged to Stan’s succesor, Soos Ramirez.  Joy puzzled over a  white box with “Xbox 360” inscribed upon it.  “I will learn your secrets, Three Sixty,” she whispered to it.  Otherwise, it was the contents of his living room, kitchen, and bedroom.  His entire wardrobe was there, including clothes that were more suited to his newly 30-something self.  

“They’re a little bit out of style, though,” he admitted.

“Ohh,” Joy said, patting his hand.  “It’s _all_ out of style, remember?  And besides, it’s the 24th Century.  Anything goes.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, to be honest, Fashion’s tended toward monochrome jumpsuits, but like I always say, ‘One size does not fit all’.”

“Hmm.”  

They continued for a bit.  “How does one collect so many skulls?” she asked him.

“I told ya; taxidermists,” Stan replied.

“ _Human_ skulls, Stan?” Joy countered.

“Medical study supply catalogs,” Stan told her.  “And eBay.”

 

 

Adam was in the attic.  He had a PADD in his hand.  

It was in one of Stan’s suitcases.  He didn’t tell anyone that he’d found it. He looked over its contents and the corner of his mouth twitched.  He descended the staircase to the foyer and back into Joy’s workshop.  He considered the vending machine for a moment, still hinged open to reveal the secret basement, and looked around for anyone near. 

 _This would only take a little while_ , he told himself.

The PADD was still in his hand.  On the back was inscribed a symbol of a six-fingered hand, with the number ‘4’ in the center.

Adam produced his comm badge and tapped it.  “ _Mediterranean_ , this is Captain Reid,” he said.  “One to beam up”

“Acknowledge,” a voice from the badge sounded.  

 

Stan had started to emerge from the basement elevator when he heard Adam’s voice.  Frowning, he headed up to see who he was talking to.  As he turned the corner, he heard a gentle sound, like a wind chime mixed with one of those water sticks that he overcharged for in that very gift shop, centuries ago.  He thought he’d seen glimmers of light in mid air, but by the time he arrived, there was nothing.

Adam had vanished.

“Huh,” Stan grunted and wandered back to the kitchen.

 

Back on the ship, Adam, still in civilian clothes, marched right into his cabin, and plopped himself into the chair of his desk.  The PADD landed on the surface with a clatter, but Adam didn’t seem to care.  He swiveled his terminal to him and began inputting a number of codes in.  

LEGACY DATABASE, the screen said.  The six-fingered symbol appeared, in the form of three leather-bound volumes with 1, 2 and 3 appearing on them.  

“So _that’s_ what I’m dealing with,” Adam muttered.  He was about to make a call when the ship’s computer spoke up.

[PRIORITY MESSAGE], the pleasant female voice of the computer announced.  [SECURITY LEVEL 10]

“Authorization Reid Delta-two-niner,” Adam responded.

On the screen of his terminal, a familiar face showed up. 

It was virtually the same face of the man he’d woken up from a centuries-long slumber.  Even the same reduced age. With a slightly different hairstyle, spectacles, and a cleft chin, he was dressed in dark clothes. 

“Captain,” The man whom Adam knew without a doubt was Dr. Stanford Pines himself, addressed him.  “I see you got my message.”

“I don’t get back to Earth that often,” Adam told him.  “You’re cutting into my relaxation time.”

“My apologies.  This was the only way I could think of to get my brother where I wanted and safely.”

Adam’s eagle-eyes glimmered in the dim light of his cabin.  “That’s relatively speaking.  The man is still in shock over what you’ve done to him.”

Stanford averted his eyes.  “He’ll understand eventually.”

Adam changed the topic.  “But you orchestrated this whole turn of events.  You placed the Mystery Shack’s contents in your basement and placed a stasis field around it.  You then arranged for my sister to own the property and move in, knowing somehow that the two of us couldn't resist the mystery of a town that is now named after you and your brother, and that we would somehow liberate him from the cocoon that you yourself put him.”

Stanford didn't address this directly.  Instead he remarked, “Your eyes weren’t originally that color.”

Adam frowned at the screen.  “No.”

“You in fact had dark eyes, in reflection of your Betazoid heritage,” Pines pressed.

“Your point, Doctor?”

“And have you ever, in your life, had a vision of a great pair of golden wings, with feathers all around you?

Adam stared at the screen.  His mouth was by now agape, words not quite forming.  

“I’ve chosen whom I wanted Stanley to be met in this century very carefully, Captain.  Of the Five, your compassion and charity was the most desirable.  By the way—“ Pines smiled at Adam, “Give Seth my regards.”

“You had a message for me,” Adam pressed.  “Otherwise, there’s no point to this conversation.”

“Yes.  I want Stanley to go ahead with his life.”

“All right, but—“

“I do not want him to go searching for me—at least not yet,” Pines warned. “What I am doing is perilous at best, and he cannot yet be involved.”

“Okay, I’ve only met the man for a day or so, and I can tell you right now _that’s_ not gonna work,” Adam sighed.  

“Rebuilding a new identity for himself in the 24th Century ought to keep him occupied long enough,” Pines assured Adam. 

“What if I refuse? Adam replied.  

“Putting my brother in jeopardy wouldn’t be a wise move,” Pines warned.

Adam’s head dropped toward the terminal screen.  “That’s funny, Dr. Pines.  I was going to say the exact…same…thing.”

And before Pines could answer, Adam terminated the link.  He sat awhile.  “Computer, interlink with Legacy Database is still standing?”

[Affirmative.]

“I need all references to a Dr. Stanford Pines in the database.  Include all databases, including the Watchers’ Council.”

 

With that, he got up, and moved back to the transporter room.

He left Journal 4 behind.

 

 

 

Joy’s love of robotics became increasingly clear to Stanley when she made the arrangements to take some of her own signature pieces out of storage, now that she had three sub-basements to fill with.

“Who buys these things?” Stan asked, incredulously, as he looked at the prototypes of what she designated “Bob” and “Irving”.

“Various planetary governments,” Joy replied.  “And ‘buy’ is not really the exact word.”

Stan immediately looked at him from the side of his eyes.  “What do you mean?”

“The Federation doesn’t really use a money-based economic system, like you’re probably used to,” April told him. She had been admiring Bob. “I mean, sure, you earn credits and privileges from work, but _wealth_ has been eliminated almost entirely.”

“You’re shitting me,” Stan said, looking horrified.  “Then how’d you buy my house?’

“Again, ‘buy’ is not the exact phrase you’re looking for,’ Joy tried to explain.  “I work as an engineer, okay?  On top of designing mechs, I also service fusion generators, and that earns me credit to gain ownership of the property.”

“That sounds like money,” Stan said, waving his hand away at her in dismissal.

“Right…follow me.”  

They walked back to the kitchen, where Joy stood in front of the replicator.  She pushed a few buttons, and within moments, an object appeared in the alcove.  She fished it out and presented it to Stan.

“That’s…that’s a gold crown!” Stan said, grabbing it, examining it.  It sure felt heavy like gold, and the jewel inlays were intricate as well, with rubies.

“How much would you say that would cost, by your estimate?” Joy asked him.

“Thousands of dollars,” Stan replied.  “Easy.”

“But I just _made_ it,” Joy countered.  “It was made molecule by molecule, from a pattern stored in a database in a computer and created from basically…dirt.  The atoms and molecules were rearranged into a new pattern, carbon and nitrogen and hydrogen disassembled and reassembled into gold.  This technology exists throughout the Federation and every citizen has access to this from anywhere.  Now, what is this crown’s worth?”

Stan’s nose wrinkled.  “Nothing.  If anybody can make a gold crown out of thin air, then it’s worthless.”

“Exactly.  If anyone can create a gold crown out of thin air, then there’s no point to hoard it, no point to not share resources, no point to do anything but give everyone the _opportunity_ —“  and she emphasized that word— “To pursue their dreams without worrying about _cost_.”

“Ah, but…” Stan said.  “Having stuff ain’t always the endgame.  Sometimes it’s about the chase, about the game, about the grift.”

“Spoken like a gambler,” April noted.

“Exactly!” Stan replied.  “You could play a game of poker and replace money with matchsticks and you’d still get hooked on the gamble, the risk of losing everything you’d got up to that point.

“I’ll give you another example.  My Mystery Shack.”

“Okay,’ Joy allowed.

Stan walked, crown still in hand, back to the living room.  Joy’s new Tyrannosaur end table sat next to her chair.  Stan scooped up Theo, bouncing in his own chair.  He gurgled happily in Stan’s arms.  “What are the chances that everyone who visited the shack were satisfied with my backwoods monsters?”

“Not a hundred percent,” April replied.

“Nope!  That’s the risk.  But the game is to be ahead by the numbers!  And also to follow Rule Number One.”

“What’s that?” Joy asked, loving this conversation.

“Stan Pines Rule Number One:  [_Once you have their money, you never give it back_](http://www.apple.com),” Stan recited.

“No refunds,” April sighed.

“Where have I heard that before?” Joy wondered.  “Anyway, the galaxy’s a big place.  Outside the Federation, they have currency systems.  Like latinum.”

 

It was at this point that Adam popped in, and sat next to April.  “What’d I miss?”

“When Stan said he thought you had vanished, I had to explain Transporters,” April explained.  “Where were you?”

“I had to take care of some business on the _Medi_ ,” He told her.  “I’ll fill you in later.”

Stan frowned.  “So people can teleport now.”

Adam lean forward and smiled, putting his hands on his knees.  He was still wearing his summer vacation outfit.  “Yup.”  

“And they travel in outer space,” Stan continued.

“Yup.”

“And, _apparently_ , for free,” Stan finished, making eye contact with Joy, who nodded.

“Booking interstellar travel still isn’t any easier than the airlines, gotta tell you Stan,” April warned.

“Y’know,” Stan said, looking at Adam.  “I know that Joy here’s an engineer, and April is a writer, but I never asked what _you_ do, Adam.”

“I was wondering why you haven’t,” Adam admitted. 

“So the _Mediterranean_ is a…” Stan shook his head, as if he didn’t want to say it out loud.

“Starship,” Adam finished.  “And I’m its captain.” 

“You?!” Stan exclaimed.  “You’re just a baby!”

Adam shrugged, still smiling.  Joy frowned.  

Stan passed Theo off to Joy and clasped his thick arms behind his back.  “So, technically you could take me wherever I wanted?”

“Technically,” Adam agreed.  “But for you to operate in the Federation, we need to get you in the system.  As far as any services that you’d need to live anywhere, you don’t really exist yet.”

“There’s a small process that we have to go through,” April explained.  “We’re not the first people that emerged from a different era.”

Stan pursed his lips and nodded. “Okay. Okay.” 

“I mean, where would you want to go?” Adam asked.  “You’ve just gotten home.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Stan asked back.  “I gotta find Ford!”

Adam never stopped smiling.  

Joy grabbed him by the arm, Theo still in tow and hauled him over to the library.

“Hold that thought!” Adam called, as the door slammed.

“What is going on?” Joy hissed at Adam.  “What were you doing, _really_?”

“I went back to the ship, like I told you—“

“No.  Tell me what _happened_ ,” Joy cut him off.  “Something happened that’s making you stonewall Stan and smile like an idiot in front of your new girlfriend.  Tell.  Me.”

“I found something among Stan’s belongings,” Adam sighed.  “It was a PADD with a symbol on it that I thought I’d recognized.”

“You took something without his permission?  Adam are you _kidding_ me?”

“The PADD was meant for _me_ to find,” Adam explained.  He fished out a paper note out of the pocket of his bermuda shorts and showed it to her.

Handwritten like the pages in the alien ship, she read it:

 

Captain Adam T. Reid III

 _USS Mediterranean_ NCC-4975

For Your Eyes Only

 

SFP

 

“Stanford?” She guessed. 

He nodded.

“But why?”  

Adam balled his fists, then released.  “Apparently he chose us to revive his brother in advance.”

“Adam, how is he doing all of this?” Joy asked.  

Adam stopped.  He’d been trying to get past the ‘why’ that he never considered the ‘how’.  “Either he’s put himself in stasis himself, and made the arrangements in advance of his brother’s release, or…”

“Time travel?” Joy offered.

“It’s possible,” Adam sighed. “Ford wants Stan to get his life restarted.  He doesn’t want them to be reunited, at least not right away,” Adam explained.  

Joy frowned.  “There’s something he’s trying to protect Stan from.”

Adam leaned against the door.  “What makes you say that?”

Theo started to fuss.  As she bounced him on her hip, She looked at him as if the answer should be obvious.

“Because that’s what you’d do if it were you and me,” Joy answered.  “And it’s what I’d do if it were this little guy.”

“We don’t know enough about their history together,” Adam said.  “But it doesn’t seem like their relationship is as healthy as yours and mine.”

“Maybe not,” Joy admitted.  “But if Stan’s hellbent and determined to find Ford, I’m not sure there’s much you can do to stop him.”

“I’m not even sure I want to try,” Adam agreed.  “I’m not even sure why Ford chose us to babysit him in the first place.”

Joy eyes widened.  “Oh!  I think I might have the answer to that.”

She took out her own tablet and handed it to Adam, as she sat down with Theo on the couch.  “Mabel and Mason Pines,” She explained.  “They both had families, and there’s several descendants that I’ve managed to contact.”

“Hmm!” Adam hummed in approval.  “Good work, Stinkerbelle!”

“…There’s more.”

Adam stopped and looked at Joy.  She didn’t immediately meet his gaze.  Her mouth was twisted to the side.

“The genealogical program worked the Pines family history both forwards and backwards from the family members we plugged in,” Joy explained.  

“I don’t…”

“When the Pines family came over from Germany, they changed their name, or had their name changed,” Joy explained.  “Original last name was Musselman.”

Adam froze.  “You’re not saying—“

“The Eichorn family reunion, 1978,” she directed him to old photographs.  He looked. He saw a teenage boy with a toddler and a man in his 30s in a park.  “That’s our ancestor, Adam Reid the first, with his father.”

“And the older boy?” Adam asked.

Joy sighed.  “Sherman Pines.”

Adam rubbed his temple.  

“Oh wait, it gets better,” Joy said.  She brought up a series a pictures of their ancestors’ family reunion.  “Here’s Adam One’s grandmother, Maylily Reid—her maiden name’s Musselman—And there is Filbrick Pines, their father.”

Adam looked.  Filbrick barely smiled in the picture.  

Another picture.  A blonde woman smiled with Adam One, Sherman, and two young men, one of which Adam immediately recognized.  

“That’s Ford, all right,” Adam sighed.  “Who’s the other one?”  It was a friendly looking man with a long nose and shaggy hair. round spectacles perched low on the bridge of his nose.

“The photo just says, “Ford Pines and friend”, Joy replied, but smiled, “But it’s a good thing it’s me who’s your sister.”

“How’s that?” Adam asked.  Something about the look on Ford’s face felt…familiar to him.  There was a time that he’d been just as reclusive in his studies at the Academy and younger.  He was lucky to have someone like Josh to draw him out of his shell.

“Because _that_ is none other than Fiddleford McGucket,” Joy explained.  “His contribution to cybernetics and technology in the 21st Century didn’t get fully recognized until well after his death.”

“When was that?” Adam asked, absently.

Joy looked up.  “2018.”

“Well,” Adam said, clearing his throat.  “Now we know why.  Joy, did you…?”

Joy turned ashen.  “Um…”

At that moment, Stan burst through the door.  “Come on, you two, you’re taking forever in here!  Ah!” He spied Joy’s tablet and flipped through the pictures.  “Nope, sure wasn’t invited to _that_ reunion!” he said.  “Although, I think I managed to get to Dick and Maylily’s 40th wedding anniversary…Ah!”

Adam looked at an older version of the toddler, in dress clothes, with his grandmother at a banquet table.  To his right was none other than Stanley, wearing a green suit, and an unflattering haircut, too long in the back.

Stanley’s grin was wide.  “Come on, kid,” Stan said to Adam, “Give your Grunkle Stan a hug!”


	4. Ticket to the Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan and his hosts travel to Lake Armstrong, where he gets some good advice from his doctor.

**_Ticket To The Moon_ **

 

 

Stan wasn’t in the Shack at the moment.

 

He was back in Galion, Ohio, in 1982.  

 

And technically, he was dead.

Months before, Stanford had been pushed into the Portal 

(don’t want to think about that right now)

And what should happen to come in the mail but a letter from Pops.  Talking about that business with the Ohio Musselmans and how there was a wedding anniversary from a “Really classy lady” that Ford had met at the Eichorn Reunion four years prior.  He wasn’t feeling that well, and here’s the money for the airfare.  Maybe a little too quickly, he agreed.  No one else was going except for him, and if he could pass himself off as Ford amongst these distant relatives, he could do it to anyone.

It was a test.

So there he was, at the table next to the couple themselves, in their 60’s, for their 40th wedding anniversary, surrounded by their children and grandchildren.  Richard and Maylily Reid.  

He had never met these people in his entire life.

Next to Maylily was a little boy with brown hair and bangs.  He ate his dinner and occasionally looked up at his grandmother, and the two exchanged smiles.  At one point, another older gentleman said something to Maylily.  

Stan remembered saying, “He’s your grandma’s brother, ya know.”

“Uh huh?” the boy said, being polite to a total stranger.

“Yeah!  That makes him your great uncle,” Stan continued.  

“Wow,” the boy said.

“But, ya know, It’s a lot of time to say ‘Great-Uncle Barney’, so you could just shorten it.”

“To what?”

“Grunkle,” Stan had said, causing the little boy’s nose to wrinkle.  “No, no, listen!  That way, you don’t waste so much time for him to give you some candy or a penny or whatever it is that Grunkles give kids these days.  You just say, “Hi, Grunkle Barney,” and you’re smooth sailing.  Whaddaya say?”

“I don’t know,” the boy said, scooting closer to his grandmother, who was pretending not to listen, but was smiling all the same.  

“He’s got two grunkles,” Maylily finally said, and her involvement in the conversation made the boy more at ease.  “Your Uncle Blair— _Grunkle_ Blair,” she amended, winking at Stan, “is his twin brother.  Did you know that?”

The boy shook his head.  Uncle Blair and Uncle Barney didn’t quite look the same.  

And as Maylily began to tell the boy how the two twin brothers had been posted in the same unit in the War, and fought together, Stan sneaked a peek at the two of them, enjoying their mixed drinks from the bar and talking to their nephew, the boy’s father. 

 

Stan never went back to Galion.

 

 

Stan swung his legs over the bed.  Adam was awake, sitting up in the other bed.

“Stan?”

“Can we talk?” Stan asked.  

Adam put the PADD away and folded his hands.  “What’s on your mind?”

“You should know, uh, that this house is no good in the acoustics department.”

Adam cocked an eyebrow.  “Is that so?”

“Yeah, so, I might have overheard part of your conversation with your sister.”

“What part?” Adam asked.  He personally didn’t care at this point what he knew about his conversation with Ford, but had to know what to set straight.

“The part where you feel you have to ‘babysit’ me,” Stan said.  

“Stan—“ Adam started, but Stan cut him off.

“I know the two of you didn’t ask for this,” Stan said.  “I mean, I’m _grateful_.”  He puffed himself up, smiling smugly.  “You know, _thank you_ for getting me out of that spaceship…”

“That was a very pointed ‘thank you’,” Adam noted, smiling.

“That’s because I don’t want you to think that I’m not grateful for being awake and alive, and in the world,” Stan explained.  “I don’t want you to think that I’m some Alcatraz around your neck.”

Adam frowned.  he was pretty sure the word was ‘albatross’, but merely said, “Okay?”

“…But you know that I’m going to have to go and look for Ford eventually, right?” Stan said.  “I need him to explain himself to my face why he’s done what he’s done.”

“It’s complicated, between you two, isn’t it?” Adam said.

“Jesus Christ, that’s an understatement,” Stan replied.  “I mean, when we were on the open sea, it was…It was like we were kids again, and everything that was bad had never happened.”

“But before?”

“You don’t have enough shore leave for that story,” Stan joked.  “But the Cliffs Notes version is, _I_ was stupid, _he_ was stupid, and we ruined each others’ lives.  Like mutually.”

Waves of regret and anger and resentment poured off of Stan.  Adam didn’t need to have an empathic sense for that.  “Sounds really rough,” was all he said.  

“Yeah.  How is it that the people in your life you care about the most can make you the most angry?”

Adam chuckled.  “I do not know.  I do know that between Joy and Josh, I’ve gotten into the biggest arguments of my life with.  We don’t disagree much, but when we do…whoo!”

“Is Josh your brother?” Stan asked.

“Not…by blood,” Adam tried to explain.  “The families are distantly related, but get together socially, so we were practically raised together, so…”

“So you’re as related to him as you are to me?” Stan said.

“Give or take a generation,” Adam affirmed.

“You don’t have to call me ‘Grunkle Stan’,” Stan told him.

“And I don’t have to call my brother-in-law ‘Uncle Mike’,” Adam replied.  “But maybe.”  Adam paused for a moment.  Stan still looked preoccupied.  “You still don’t know about what led to you being put in the capsule?”

“No I don’t,” Stan replied.  “And I really don’t like that I don’t remember.”

“I mean—“ Adam started.

“No, you don’t understand,” Stan cut him off again.  “I have a pretty good idea _why_ I can’t remember, but the fact that he’d…”  Stan stopped, and pursed his lips, and snorted his nose.  He was getting sniffly.  “That he’d do that to me, after everything.”

“I talked to my Dad tonight,” Adam said, changing the subject.  “He invited us to go visit his cottage by Lake Armstrong.”

“That’s in Ohio?” Stan asked.  “I was just—“

“No, not in Ohio,” Adam said with a smile.

 

Taking a terrestrial tram to Luna would require Stan to have his papers in order.  However, those were still a few days away.  Instead, Adam decided to use his Starfleet privilege to his advantage.  The shuttle landed in the clearing behind the Shack.

Stan stared at it.  “It’s…It’s like an RV.”

April walked past him to the shuttle.  “More like a van, actually.  Now the new runabouts… _those_ are like RVs.”

The pilot of the shuttle met April. 

Stan stopped in his tracks.  It was green.

Now the green pilot was hugging April.

Adam carried his duffel over his shoulder.  “Are you coming, Stan?”

“That guy’s your pilot?” Stan asked.

Adam smiled.  “Yeah.  As good a pilot as you’ll find.  Why?”

“It’s just…This is my first little green man.”

“Little green…Oh.” Adam chuckled.  “Your first alien, you mean?”

“Yuh,” Stan said.  

“Well, that’s not really true,” Adam explained.  “And considering your former job, this is gonna be an interesting meeting.”

The two walked right up to April and the Pilot.  “Hey, Raph,” Adam announced.

“Cap’n?” Raph replied.  

“Sorry to interrupt,” Adam said, holding up his hands.  “I wanted you to meet our passenger.  Stanley Pines,” He gestured to Stan, “This is Lt. Raphael Hamato.”

Raph stuck out his hand.  “Hey, buddy.  Nice to meet ya.”

Joy walked toward the shuttle, wearing a gaudy pair of sunglasses and carrying the baby tote.  “I hope Dad’s baby-proofed the cottage,” she said.  “Hi, Raph.”

“Joy,” Raph called after her as she embarked.  

Stan wasn’t sure what to do as he was shaking the green man’s three-fingered hand.  It was…cool to the touch.  His skin was slightly mottled,reptilian, but not scaly. Under his uniform, he could see what looked like—and this is where dealing with taxidermy as long as he had came in handy—the plastron of a turtle’s shell.

“Stan tells me,” Adam said to Raph, pure mischief in his voice, “That you are his first little green man, Lieutenant.”  Stan’s face turned pink.

“Oh!” Raph said, trying not to laugh.  “Well, I’ll keep that in mind.”

April joined Joy in the shuttle.  “Hey, Stan,” Raph asked.  

Stan didn’t respond, still studying Raph’s features.

“Wanna ride shotgun?”

 

“So, I mean, You’re from Jersey, originally,” Raph said, as he started his pre-flight.  “Right?”

“Yuh,” Stan replied, still slightly monosyllabic. “Um, Glasser Beach.  Glass Shard Beach, if you’re from there, heh.”

“Never tried to go there, if we could help it,” Raph recollected.  “Did we, April?”

“Not Jersey City,” April replied.  “Atlantic City, maybe.”

“Well, yeah,” Stan agreed.  “Boardwalk and all that.”  He stopped.  “You’ve been putting me on, right?”

“What?” Raph asked, still checking his engines.  “About being an alien?  I’m not _human_ , obviously.”

“I can’t believe that Mr. Mystery never caught whispers of the strange creatures that lurked in New York City,” April said from behind Stan’s chair.  “Or _did_ he?”  She whipped up her little device and showed Raphael a holo.  “The mask’s even red,” she noted.

Stan was as pink-faced as ever now.  “So he’s one of the ‘guys’ that helped you through your transition to the 24th Century,” Stan surmised.

“Yep,” April said.  “I wouldn’t be anywhere without ‘em.”

“Initiating launch sequence,” Raph announced.  “Strap in, guys.”

As if Stan needed to; Raph gave them a smooth ride.  The shuttle flew over Pinesville—which Stan had yet to visit—and past the water tower which still bore the name of Gravity Falls upon it.  Gliding through the hole in the rock wall that the alien ship created all those millions of years ago, Raph climbed the shuttle up into orbit.  

 

Stanley Pines was in space. 

He frowned.  

“I don’t feel very floaty,” he observed.  

“Artificial gravity,” April explained.  

“Aw, well that’s no fun,” Stan grumped.

“At any rate, feel free to move about the cabin,” Raph said, eyes ahead as he calculated his Luna approach.  “This’ll take a couple minutes.”

Stan walked back to where Adam and Joy were sitting quietly.  “You owe me for that,” he said to Adam, still looking impish.  He then brought his attention to Joy and Theo, whom she had on her lap.  “This his first time too?” 

“No, actually,” Joy explained.  “I had him over on Jupiter Station.”

“Your doctor was on Jupiter Station?” Adam inquired.  “ _That_ doctor?”

“I trust him!” Joy said to Adam with indignation.  “He was nothing but a gentleman to me the whole time we worked together and—“

Stan backed up.  “I see what you mean, Adam.”

“Is he meeting up with us at the cottage?” Adam asked, shifting the subject.

“Yes,” Joy hissed.  “He was very interested when I told him the situation.”

 

From the front, Stan could see the moon getting bigger and bigger front of them.  

“Lunar orbital insertion…mark,” Raph announced.  

“There’s a lake on the moon, you say?” Stan asked, absently.  

“There is a lake on the moon,” Raphael affirmed.  “They figured out a way to not only create a domed city on the moon, but to fertilize the soil and add water and trees.  It’s all over my head, though.”

“Of course, lots of the city is _under_ the surface of the moon,” Joy explained.  “New domes keep popping up, but as the population expands, it grows down as well as up.”  

“And that’s to say nothing of the various vacuum-sealed buildings,” Adam added.  “Lunar living is unique.”

“Would you ever live there?” Stan asked.

Adam gave him a sly glance.  “I like my ship.”

Stan looked at the lunar surface, covered in domes and buildings as they approached Armstrong City, and sighed.  “I did too, kid.  I did too.”

Armstrong City had three ports: A Starfleet port, for official shuttles, a tram station port, and a port for private vessels to enter the city.  Since he was utilizing the _Medi’s_ own shuttles, he decided to stick to protocol and had Raphael enter the Starfleet port.

Joy had Theo in the baby tote by the time the shuttle was docked.  By the time the back hatch had begun to lower, everyone was loaded up.  

“I’ll see you at the reception?” Adam asked Raphael.  

“Maybe, but I dunno if Buffi is gonna make it,” Raph admitted.  “She’s got a briefing at Starfleet Command about…you know.”

As Stan watched this exchange, he saw Adam’s shoulders slump.  “She shouldn’t have to go through that alone,” Adam said.  “But I’m committed to this here.  Go with her,” He told Raphael, and put his hand on his shoulder.  “Not just as her husband, but as her team mate.”

“She said she wasn’t worried—,” Raph began.

“She _always_ says that,” Adam replied.  “Let her know that I am supporting her all the way.”

“Then I guess we’ll see you when you get back,” Raph said.

Adam nodded, and adjusted the strap of his duffel on his shoulder.  Stan looked over his shoulder at Adam as they disembarked together.  

“Everything okay?” Stan asked.

Adam managed a weak smile.  “It’s classified.”

“Hey, I don’t technically exist yet,” Stan reminded him.

“It has to do with a recent mission,” Adam said.  “There was some fallout due to my first officer’s actions.  I got put in the difficult position of supporting her actions as her commanding officer—”

“But you had to ream her personally,” Stan surmised.

“She beat a man to a bloody pulp out of revenge!” Adam blurted.  His face was flushed.  It was clear to Stan that he was still upset about it.  Adam looked abashed.  “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Stan replied, frowning.  

“The mission was extraction and/or recovery.  The officer in question was being tortured by the Cardassians—“

“Hey, Poindexter,” Stan said, putting his hand on Adam’s shoulder.  “I said it’s okay.  We don’t gotta talk about this if you don’t want.”

“Right.”  Adam picked up his pace to catch up with April and Joy.

 

It didn’t take too long, as Joy had wandered over to the attention of a seemingly random officer.

“…And I didn’t believe it for sure until we found the hidden basement,” She was saying to the man.  Stan looked him up and down.  He was wearing a black coverall with a mustard yellow band over the shoulder and a grayish shirt beneath.  A stylized pin was affixed on his chest.  “Ah, you guys caught up.  In addition to the calls I made, I also contacted this guy who made me feel at home in Pinesville when he was in town last month.”

Stan stared at the man’s face.  Something about that aquiline nose.  And, of course, his hair was cut to something longer than a high-and-tight, but almost the right color.

“Old Man McGucket!” Stan exclaimed.  “You’re his descendant!”

“Ryon McGucket, to be precise,” he said, offering his hand.  “I have a bajillion questions.”

“Lieutenant, please,” Adam stepped in.  “The man is still adjusting.”

McGucket put his hand up.  “My apologies, Captain.  I’m sure you understand.”

“My sister’s a fan of your ancestor’s work,” Adam said.  

“Oh, and we’re a fan of _hers_ ,” Ryon replied.  “That’s why the Foundation gave her our Cybernetics Excellence award when her Travis series debuted.”

Joy preened for a moment, then turned to Adam.  “He’s going to be at your reception, if you have any other questions about Gravity Falls,” she explained.  

Adam frowned.  “Are you acquainted with Captain Reid-LeBeau?” he asked Ryon.

“I was posted on the _Tomcat_ ,” Ryon explained. 

“Ah,” Adam said, nodding his head.  “Well, we won’t hold you up, Mr. McGucket.

“Cap’n,” he said.

Joy waved with her free arm as he rejoined his group.  

 

The cottage by the lake was deceptively spacious.  Thomas Jorge Reid stood in the shady front waiting for everyone to show up from Adam’s party.  He had continued to grow his hair out, and had it tied back for summer weather.  In shorts and a sleeveless shirt, smiled as he heard the hum of the transport.  

“DAD!” he heard the distant cry of his youngest child, even before the transport had pulled away.  She ran toward him, arms wide, going in for another Attack Hug.  As she lovingly assaulted her father, Adam walked up with April and Stanley, Theo in tow.  

April and Stan both suddenly didn’t know what to do with their hands.  

“I didn’t realize I was going to meet his dad on this trip,” April confided.

“Maybe I should have stayed at the shack with Mike,” Stan replied.

“No, no, this is good for us both,” April said.  “You need to get acclimated.”

He was wearing his polo and shorts, not too different from what Adam was wearing, except the 24th century apparently outlawed collars on shirts.  

Before he knew it, Thomas was right in front of him with his hand out.  Stan shook it, smiling nervously.  “Hiya, Mr. Reid,” he said.

“Adam told me a little bit of what happened,” Thomas said.  “How are you holding up?”

“Not that good, to be honest,” Stan admitted.  “I’ve kind of been a wreck.”

“And now you’re on the Moon,” Thomas said with a nod.  Stan turned pink, but not before Thomas turned to give his son a baleful look.  “Son—“

Adam pursed his lips and tried to hide behind Joy, who grabbed Theo’s tote.

“Grandbaby!” she exclaimed, distracting her father.  Thomas was smarter than that, of course, but proceeded to send nonsense noises into the tote as she held it up to him.  

 

Stan sat on a folding chair by the edge of the lake.  It was calm here, the waters lapping along the shore quietly.  Beyond, Stan had a view of the main dome which contained the lake, and, while the atmosphere inside tinted the blackness outside a pale blue color, the stars were as brilliant as ever.  

On the lake, small boats could be seen enjoying the waters.

He wondered if the lake was stocked with fish.

From behind, he could hear someone walking on the lawn toward him.  He paid them little notice.  

“Nice view,” a male voice said.  He saw someone take a seat next to him.  

It was a short little man.  With a nose almost as hawkish as Stan’s, and a pale blond beard that was braided on both sides, he wore a uniform similar to that McGucket relative, except his shoulder was blue.

“My name is Fíli,” he told Stan.  “I’m a medical doctor, and Captain Reid called me regarding your need for a physical examination.  

Stan suddenly felt more self-conscious than ever.  “Nice to meet ya, Doc.  You’re not gonna examine me right now, are you?”

Fíli smiled.  “Medically, not so much.  However,” he pulled up a device which started warbling and tweeting like an electronic canary.  A unit the size of a lipstick was in his hand as he started at Stan’s temple and worked his way down to his chest.  “A preliminary scan should suffice for now.  This takes mere minutes,” Fíli assured him, “And there’s no need for turning and coughing.”

“Ha!” Stan laughed.  

“So here’s the thing,” Fíli said, casually continuing his scan.  “There’s a handful of individuals who have more or less gone through your experience.  You’ve met Ms. O’Neil,” Fíli indicated April, “But there’s a few more.  They’ve agreed to leave their contact information with Starfleet Medical, to act as, you know…”

“A support group?” Stan finished.  “Jesus Christ, there’s a twelve step program for getting stuck in the future?”

Fíli shrugged.  “I’m obligated to let you know.  On another note, I have to say, I know what you’re going through.”

“Did _you_ get stuck in the future?” Stan asked.  

“In a matter of speaking,” Fíli said, nodding his head.  “Y’see, about a century ago…”

“Jesus…” Stan breathed

“Hush, now, you’re still older than me,” Fíli said, getting another chuckle from Stan.  “Me and my brother Kili were…well, we died.”

Stan looked stricken. 

“We were put into stasis, and brought to Earth and revived.  Everything was alien to us, because we lived on a world that was medieval in its technology.  However, we decided to make a go of it, and he became an engineer and I became a medical doctor.  What did you do for a living, Stanley?”

“I…liked to think of myself as an entrepreneur,” Stan started.  “But I guess I was really more of a huckster.”

Fíli’s mouth turned up at that.  “I can see why you’d feel so awkward around here, then.”

“Huh?”

“Well, I mean…” Fíli struggled to find the right words.  “Here on Earth, everyone’s so… _nice_.”

“Yeah.”

Fíli glanced at Stan with an expression that Stan knew all too well.  It was the same one he’d have on his face talking about his customers.  “No, I mean _nice_.  And don’t get me wrong, It’s very pleasant to live and work in a capital solar system.  But…nice.  Maybe a little naive.  But _never_ mistake their being naive for being ignorant.”

Stan didn’t know what to say.

“See, in another life, me and my brother had a bit of the huckster in us.  We had skills that lent themselves to making fine jewelry and weapons alike.  And then we’d sell our wares.  And the poorer the quality, the harder we had to make the sell.  The more you had to hustle, the more you had to look for the…nice ones.  The ones that took you at face value and took your wares hook, line and sinker because they didn’t know better.”

Now Stan’s mouth started to turn up.  “That’s…that’s kind of hot,” he said.

Fíli waggled his eyebrows.  “Now don’t get me started, I promised Adam I’d be on my best behavior,” he warned Stan.  “But, there’s places out there, for the hucksters, for the hustlers, for the seekers of latinum and treasure.  Earth’s pretty much settled, but there’s wonders out there, still waiting to be found.  There’s still mysteries to be searched for.”

Stan smiled, but his eyes turned away.  “Yeah,” he replied, “But there’s no point if I have to look for them by myself.”

  

“Yes.  The brother,” Fíli sighed.  “Well, you’re going to look for him, right?”

Stan frowned.  “I don’t have a choice.”

“Of course you do!” Fill exclaimed.  “You can live your life, waiting patiently until he comes and fetches you, uprooting you all the while.  You can go and seek him out like a quest, where he will tell you you never should have looked for him…”

Stan frowned at that.

“Or you can decide to reject that binary.  We are not the other half of our twin, Stanley.”

“You—you’re a twin?” Stan asked.

“My people tend to be twinned,” Fíli stated matter-of-factly.  “And you’re gonna be the third twin I’ve told this to.”

“All the same,” Stan said, “He’s got answers I need.”

Fíli shrugged again.  “Just know that you have a choice.  You didn’t choose to be plopped into 2369, but from here on out, it’s your choices that matter.”

He reached out and patted Stan on the shoulder.  “Hmm.  Furry as a Dwarf.  Now let’s join the party inside.  Do you drink?”

The two got up and walked back to the cottage.  Stan’s smile was more confident.  “I’ve been known to enjoy a malt liquor beverage from time to time.”

Fíli chuckled, and looked up at him.  “You have terrible taste,” he said.  “I like that about you.”

 

***

 

Thomas and a contrite Adam met Fíli and Stan as they walked back to the cottage.  “Oh, boy.  I know _that_ look,” Stan said to Fíli.  

“You can log thousands of light-years in Starfleet and you can still get a talking-to by your Pa,” Fíli agreed, chuckling.  

“So, you’ve set up an appointment for the full exam?” Adam asked Fíli.  He glanced at Stan quickly.

“Yes sir.  I’ll give you all the rundown as soon as I can,” Fíli replied.  “If your body had its aging reversed, there may be physiological issues that I have to address.”

Stan nodded.  

April grabbed Adam.  “You owe me a walk along the lake,” she told him.  

Adam stammered, “But S-Stan—“

“Stan can get his own date,” April said.  

Stan pursed his lips and shooed them away.  “Go.”  

April dragged Adam away.  Thomas’s eyebrows arched up as he smiled.  “Glad to see him seeing someone,” he said as he sat in a wooden reclining chair.  He gestured to Stan and Fíli.  “Got some beers set out for you if you want.”

Stan gingerly took the bottle, and twisted the cap.  “This isn’t that fake stuff that Doc told me about, is it?”

“There’s no way I’m settling for synthehol when I’m out by the Lake,” Thomas said firmly.  Fíli nodded to himself in solidarity, as he grabbed a bottle and sat down.  Stan sat as well, and the three didn’t talk for a moment.  Thomas closed his eyes, and sighed.  Stan did as well, and noticed the sounds.  He heard birds chirping amongst the trees around them.  he also heard cicadas droning as well. And crickets. He had to remind himself that he was on the _Moon_ , for Christ’s sake.  

“Is it all real?” he murmured.

“Hmm?” hummed Fíli.  

“The birds.  The bugs,” Stan sighed, and took a swig from his bottle.

“Yeah,” Thomas replied.  “It’s not a recording or anything like that.  The domes come with their own ecosystem of plants and animals.  Cuts down on life support power cost.”

Joy walked out to find her father, Fíli and Stan practically dozing, their beers half-drunk.  She chuckled.  “Well, that’s _four_ babies put down for their naps,” she muttered to herself.  

“I’m still awake,” Thomas protested.

“No you’re not,” Joy replied, and grabbed his beer bottle and finished it off. “New formula, Dad?”

“Something I’ve been working on,” Thomas sighed.  “The last batch was too bitter.”

“I prefer a pale ale myself,” Fíli said, holding his bottle between his thumb and forefinger.  

“Guinness,” Stan added. 

Joy walked over to where Fíli was lounging and asked, “Couldn’t get Kili to visit, eh?”

Fíli kept his eyes closed.  “He’s all the way out at Antares,” he explained.  “Working on some new project.  Says it’s _technically_ an escort.”

“Antares…ah, that’s right, that’s the shipyards that requisitioned the Travis line,” Joy recollected.  “Well, give him my love when you talk to him.”

“Everything all right with Théodred?” Fíli asked.  “He’s got his immunizations in order?”

“I wouldn’t have taken him off of Earth otherwise,” Joy chided.  “And his next appointment with his pediatrician’s not for another three weeks.”

Fíli nodded.  “I’ve already got the one exam; hate for you to waste an opportunity.”

Joy looked off.  “Good to see Adam with someone,” She said.

“Your dad said the same thing,” Stan said.  

“When we were kids, he was such a study bug,” Joy explained.  “He was shut in, just reading book after book after book about Arda, the Numenoreans, the armor specs.  High school and at the Academy.”

“Heh.  Sounds like someone I knew,” Stan said.  Thomas and Joy glanced his way.  They didn’t comment on how sad that made Stan.

“And, you know, we could always get Josh to drag him out of the house and they’d go explore some graveyard or some kind of ruin and come back covered in welts.  And then he’d go back to studying.”

“It’s hard sometimes for kids like Adam and Joy growing up…I know it was hard for me,” Thomas spoke up.

Stan looked confused. “How’s that?”

Thomas glanced at Joy.  “He doesn’t know?”

Joy shrugged.  “It never came up.”

Thomas swung his legs onto the side of the lounging chair and faced Stan.  “Adam and Joy’s grandmother—my mom—was from Betazed.  That’s another planet in the Federation.”

However drowsy Stan was feeling evaporated.  “Wait…you mean they’re part _alien_?”

“I’m half, they’re quarter,” Thomas clarified. “And Betazoids are telepaths.  They can communicate mentally, and sense people’s thoughts and emotions.”

“Well, full-blooded ones can sense thoughts,” Joy added.  “Everytime _I_ try I get a headache.”

“But the empathic sense—the ability to sense and to a smaller degree feel someone’s emotional state—that can be passed down four generations,” Thomas finished.

“So that means,” Stan said, his brow knotted, “That means that the whole time I’ve been at the Shack with you guys, you’ve been…and i’ve been feeling…oh God.”

Joy sat on the foot of the lounge chair next to Stan.  “It means you haven’t been alone,” She assured him.  “Whatever you’ve been going through, we’ve been…sort of…been going through it with you.”

“Now I _really_ feel like I’ve been imposing,” moaned Stan, and slumped.  Joy laughed.

“When I invited Adam to visit me, I wanted us to explore your Mystery Shack,” Joy told him.  “To get Mr. Mystery _himself_?  That’s not bad.”

“It’s also good to see Adam expand his circle of friends outside of Starfleet and Arda,” Thomas noted.

By the time Adam and April had returned, the lights had been dimmed around the lake.  They were looking at each other the way young couples did, like no one else was around.  Joy knew that look herself.  

Stan helped Thomas with the dishes.  They’d shared a meal with Fíli before he’d taken his leave.  Adam went up to change into his uniform.  Josh’s reception was that night.  

“Three years on the _Tomcat_ ,” Thomas sighed.  “Belmont’s going to be pleased as punch.”

“Josh’s…?”

“Father,” Thomas replied.  He runs a restaurant in New Orleans.  Now that Josh isn’t captain of the _Tomcat_ anymore, he’s got some free time to help there.”

“Maybe we’ll go _there_ next,” Stan said sullenly.  “Impose on more of the family.”

“It’s no imposition!” Thomas exclaimed.  “Ah, you think I scolded Adam for bringing you here for that reason?”

Stan shrugged.

“Stanley, you’re still in the midst of a traumatic event!  To take you from Earth to a city on the _moon_?”  I think that was irresponsible on my son’s part.”

“But it’s not like that,” Stan said.  “I’m ready.  I gotta look for Ford.”

Thomas smiled, and put down the dish.  “I think I see the family resemblance.”

Adam came down the stairs.  His uniform was slightly different from Fíli’s and McGucket’s with black at the shoulders and red over the chest.  four disks adorned his collar.

“Lookin’ sharp,” Stan said.  “Guessing I’m not invited.”

“Sorry, Grunk,” Adam said, “Starfleet only.”

“The McGucket kid said that he was going to be there, right?” Stan asked.  

“Right.”

“He said he has questions; he might also have a few answers.”

Adam nodded.  “I got you, Stan.”

Thomas turned around.  “No dress uniform, then?”

“Not this time,” Adam said.  “Just casual.”

“April going with you?” Stan asked.

clunky footsteps answered Stan’s question as April followed down the stairs, wearing a peach-colored dress, scooped low in the front.  Her hair was up and adorned at the top. 

“Ready?” Adam asked her.

“Rock ’n’ Roll,” April replied.  She turned to Thomas and Stan.  “Don’t wait up.”

They exchanged a look, and Thomas waved them away.  “Give Josh our best,” he told them.

April and Adam exchanged a look of their own.  Not exactly a chaste one.  And with that they were off to meet the transport.

Thomas’s eyebrows arched up as he got back to the dishes.  “I think I see more grandbabies in my future,” he remarked.  

 

***

 

The next morning, Stan tried his hand at the replicator, and grabbed himself a short stack and a cup of coffee. _I really_ could _live on pancakes for the rest of my life,_ he thought to himself with a smile.  _But I think I’d miss being able to cook them for myself_.  Adam shuffled in, went to the replicator himself and uttered, “Oskoid” to it.  Stan looked over his shoulder as a plate full of fruit, vegetables and possibly meat as well appeared before Adam. as he made his way to the table.

“Oskoid?” Stan asked.  

Adam nodded.  He produced a PADD, and sleepily worked his fingers upon it. 

“And that’s some kind of coffee?” Stan prodded.  _What was wrong with this kid?_ Stan wondered.  That fake alcohol meant no hangovers, so…what?

“Raktajino,” Adam replied, nodding.  

“Everything go okay last night?  You look like shit,” Stan noted, deciding not to mince words.

Adam chuckled.  “Last night was a hoot,” he replied.  Me and April danced and…well, _danced_.  We got Josh to do the pinball trick, and broke ten overhead lights.”

“What bout that McGucket kid?”

Adam gestured to the PADD in his hands.  

“That’s it?”  Stan’s neck strained forward, sticking Adam with a look.

“I also got some…not great news,” Adam replied.  

“What, kid?  Are you dying?  Am _I_ dying?” Stan suddenly looked concerned.  “I don’t got your empathy powers, you gotta tell me what’s up.”

“Um…It’s my ship, the _Mediterranean_ ,” Adam explained.  “See, when they named her fifty years ago, It was a new class and all that, but they’d went ahead and designed a new ship class in the interim, and they named it the Mediterranean-class.

“So?  They rename the ship,” Stan said with a shrug.  “I’m partial to _Stan-O-War_ , myself.”

“Well, in order to do that, they have to decommission the ship,” Adam explained.  “And that entails refitting the ship, and putting a fresh crew and captain on board it.”

“You lost your ship,” Stan said, getting the picture real quick.

“Well…not right away.  I will be relinquishing command of the Medi by the end of the year,” Adam sighed.  “After which I’ve been assured that I will be getting a new command.”

“And your friend?  Josh?”

“Same.”

“And does this have to do with that Kardashian business you were beginning to tell me about the other day?” Stan asked.  Adam was touched that Stan was making the effort to care.  

“Not really.  I mean, There’s gonna be some minor consequences for Buffi, but she’d still be my first officer of our next command.”

“Starfleet works a little different than the US Navy, I’m guessing,” Stan said.  

Adam nodded.

“Well, that’s really shitty,” Stan said.  

“Six years,” Adam sighed.  “My first command as Captain.”

Soon April shambled through the kitchen and got a big mug herself.  “My neck hurts,” She muttered.  “’S all your fault.”

Adam turned bright pink.  

Stan beamed.  

“Dirty old man,” April grumbled, smacking Stan on the shoulder, making him grin all the more.

“Yup,” Stan said.

 

 

Doctors’ offices didn’t exactly change much in three centuries, Stan decided as he sat in a waiting room with Joy.  It did make him wonder what kind of planet Fíli came from, as the music piped through the room was low and dark, if strangely peaceful.  

“Nervous?” Joy asked.

“You tell me, Stan asked, not quite making eye contact.  

“I think your knee’s been bouncing ever since we got here,” Joy replied.  

 

The door opened automatically, and Fíli poked his head out.  “Stanley, I’m ready for you,” he told him and turned.  The door closed.  Stan walked up to the door, which whooshed open.  He stood back and the door closed.  A step forward, and the door opened again.  Fíli stood inside, holding some kind of instrument.  “If you’re done playing with the door?”

“I’ll be right out here,” Joy reassured him.

 

“So I’m going to have you lay on the bio-bed,” Fíli instructed as Stan took his jacket off.  He lay down and a device overhead began to hum.  Fíli circled the bed, pointing the instrument at Stan as a narrow shaft of light from overhead looked him over, bottom to top.  “Yes,” Fíli murmured.  “Yes, that’s consistent with…”  

“Doc,” Stan sighed, looking up at the ceiling.  “Not helping.”

“Oh, sorry, sorry,” Fíli replied, putting his hand up in a placating manner.  “I have to ask, Stanley, have you suffered any cranial trauma?  Any neurological conditions that run in your family?”

Stanley looked at him, but didn’t seem to know how to answer.  “I told you that my memory’s a little fuzzy.”

“Yes, you’d said.  Memory’s a funny thing,” Fíli said, then called,  “Nurse, cortical scanner.”

“Yes, Doctor,” a tall, male nurse replied, and stepped out of the exam room.  

“What’s that?” Stan asked jerking upright.  

“Lie back down,” Fíli ordered, and Stan sighed and complied.  “It’s just that…”

“Hmm?” Stan hummed.

“A colleague of mine, a Dr. Pulaski, she’d perfected a technique that scanned cortical bonds and disrupted them…essentially disrupting one’s short term memory,” Fíli explained.  “It’s a very delicate procedure, to the point where it doesn’t always take.”

Stan frowned, and looked off to the side.  “So my memory _has_ been wiped.”

“Whether it was intentional or as a result of an accident or a traumatic event, I couldn’t guess,” Fíli replied.  “But yes.”

The nurse returned with the cortical scanner, and handed it to Fíli.  “This will tell me if you’ve suffered any physical damage to your cerebral cortex as a result,” Fíli explained.  “I can most likely reverse that, but I can’t guarantee any restoration of your memories.”

“And what about me having gotten younger?” Stan asked.  

“I see evidence of your having _once_ been in your sixties,” Fíli said, nodding.  Your skeletal system’s calcium deposits are consistent of someone who was once depleting their skeletal calcium, though that process is reversing.  You said you’ve regenerated your lost teeth, which would indicate a genetic resequencing…”

“Doc, you’re speaking in tongues,” Stan complained.  

“There are exotic treatments outside of my purview  that match your condition,” Fíli said.  “An old friend of mine once underwent a similar treatment.  The risk of that treatment is genetic damage, but I don’t see any evidence of that.  It’s too bad you can’t remember, because you apparently discovered the Fountain of Youth.”

“Like someone gave me the last thirty years of my life back,” Stan muttered.

Fíli shrugged.  “Remember what we talked about yesterday,” he told Stan.  “It’s your choice to decide what to do with that second chance.”

 

Stan walked back into the waiting room, where Joy had already had his jacket ready.  “Tell your brother I’ll send him my report for him and Mr. Pines here,” Fíli told her, then turned to Stan.  “That’s it.  Within the next day or so, you’ll be in the system, and get your access to the public nets and comm systems and all that happy crappy.”

Stan groaned.  “I spent the last thirty years of my life avoiding the Internet.”

“It also facilitates doctor visits, whatever career you choose to go into, though I suspect you’re going to be self-employed—“

“Damn straight,” Stan snapped.  

“—Now, if you choose to operate outside the Federation, things become a little more arduous, but not impossible.  Folks that have come from past eras are greatly encouraged to go back and freshen up their education.”

Stan chuckled.  “I think the school of hard knocks is running year round, doc.”

Fíli shrugged.  “At any rate, you’ve been released from my care, and are no longer my patient.”  He placed his hands over Stan’s.  “I wish you the best of luck.  And if you’re so inclined…”

“Fíli…” Joy sighed.

“…I can think of a few less professional methods of pain management,” Fíli finished, waggling his eyebrows. 

“I-I’m not saying no,” Stan said, looking slightly flushed, “Any port in a storm, an’ all that.”

“Come on,” Joy huffed.  As she pulled Stan toward the exit by the arm, Fíli, possibly just to aggravate Joy further, mouthed, “Call me,” at Stan as they left.


	5. Hold On Tight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan pays his respects; Something shifty is happening back at home.

**_Hold on Tight_ **

 

It was Stan’s first dry run as a Federation citizen. As such, they were returning to Earth the civilian way, through the tram.  Adam, Joy and April were with him for any questions he might have had.  The station was bustling that morning, but they’d gotten there early enough to enjoy side vendor cuisine.  Joy was still enjoying her bowl of Tellarite stir-fry on the go. (The look on Stan’s face at glancing at the Tellarite and all the other non-human vendors were worth it) April had Theo over her shoulder.  Stan’s questions didn’t quite seem to be about transportation, though.

“So do I gotta register to vote?” Stan asked.

“You’re automatically on the rolls,” Adam explained.  “And It’s not mandatory.”

Stan nodded.  “I vote for…What, is there a president?”

“There’s a Federation President, but they’re chosen by the Federation Council,” April explained.  “It’s more of a parliamentary system.  You vote for your local and planetary leaders, though.”

“That’s fine by me,” Stan said, and shuddered.  “Brrr.  2016.”

“Okay, so you put your hand on the turnstile,” Adam instructed.  Stan did so, and his name came up.  “Okay, since we’ve pre-registered our transit plan, and we’re automatically going to the San Francisco station, You just confirm all that, and you just get on your tram.”

“And this is the same system to go anywhere in the Federation?” Stan asked.

“Completely standardized…unless you take a private transport or you have your own means of transportation,” Adam replied.  “But the ID system is still in place.”

“Now that’s a long-term goal, right there,” Stan sighed.  

“Are you sure you want to do this right now?” Joy asked.  “We can go right back home—to the Shack, that is—“

“No.  The sooner you hold this kind of thing up, the sooner you lose your nerve,” Stan said.  Adam looked at his shoes for a moment, before they all took their turn at the turnstile.  

Unlike Adam’s shuttle, the tram ride was filled with conversation, with folks chattering.  Stan looked around.  While lots of folks seemed to be returning from visits similar to the Reids, there were also some day travelers as well.  _Just another bus ride_ , Stan thought.  _Going to the moon for a meeting at noon._

How was he going to make a life of it in this strange place?

Earth was a paradise, but any step he would take beyond—and Christ, it’s not even called Gravity Falls anymore!  Any step off the porch of his old Shack and he'd feel suffocated.

To hell with Ford’s plans.  Fíli was right.  Earth—this version of Earth—was indeed too nice.

But first, there were things to do, and preparations to make.  Obligations to the little family he had left.  He looked at Adam and Joy.  He’d tried not to think of it, but he could see Mabel and Dipper in them.  Adam was a thoughtful explorer, while Joy was an adventurous homebody. 

San Francisco was barely recognizable to Stan.  Then again, the last time he was here, Harvey Milk was still alive.  And so was Jimmy Snakes, for that matter.  As the tram disembarked, Adam began to show him how to summon and program the Bay Area autocab system.  “I prefer them over the Trans San Francisco line,” he explained, “And we can get back to Pinesville that way as well.”

“Just…get me there, Adam,” Stan said.  

“Okay,” Adam replied, and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.  

 

The older cemeteries in Piedmont were more interesting for visitors than the newer ones; At Mountain View, the headstones, even from the days when the stone was polished to a reflective sheen, had visible signs of weathering, and getting rubbings were the thing to do. This one had a few internment buildings which were roofed in red Spanish tile.   The foursome walked up to the plot.

“You got them?” Stan asked the young people behind him.  

“Yes, _Grunkle_ Stan,” Joy sighed.  “Gimme the bottle, April?”

As Joy tended to Theo, Adam and Stan walked up to the headstone.  “You first,” Stan told Adam.  Adam took the stone in his hand and placed it on the top.  “Joy?”  Joy hustled behind them and placed hers next.  Stan placed his last.  “This is how they know it’s been visited,” Stan explained.  “That’s what my grandma taught me.”

Adam nodded.  “Betazoids have a similar tradition.”

“Good.”  Stan looked at the grave.  “We can go to Bozeman for Mabel another time, but…I had to get to these guys today.”

Adam looked around the family marker where they’d left their stones and found Stan’s baby brother Sherman, and Mason’s as well, with ‘Dipper’ in quotation marks below his name.  Adam turned to Joy, and saw tears in her eyes.  April was sniffing behind him.  Stan’s eyes were shimmering as well, but a little smile appeared on his features.  “Eighty-two,” he said, quietly.  “The kid lived to be eighty-two.  Good for him.”

Adam nodded, and realized that his vision was getting a little blurry.  He blinked the tears away.  “And, would you look at that,” Stan said, looking at the marker next to Mason’s.  “She said yes after all.”

Another moment passed, and April eventually blew her nose with a handkerchief.  Adam turned and squeezed her shoulder.  Remembering that conversation in the attic, he whispered to her, “We can visit Robyn sometime if you’d like.”

She smiled, blinking the tears down her cheek, and replied, “That’s right.  Just make it all about me.”

Joy turned back to Theo.  “It’s so beautiful out here.  We should have packed a picnic.”

Adam squeezed April one more time and replied, “Maybe when we get back.  I think we’re neglecting Mike anyway.”

“Yeah.  He was supposed to check in with me, and I’ve been waiting for his call…” Joy muttered.  “Yeah, no.  Nothing.  I hope everything’s okay.”

Adam glanced at Stan.  A look of apprehension crossed his face before he spoke up.  “I’m sure it’s fine.  Guy all alone in a cabin in the woods?”

 _No, Stan_ , Adam thought.  _Don’t say it._

“What could possibly go wrong?”

 

Keeping silent his apprehension all the while, Adam got the autocab to double-time it back to Pinesville.  Northern California disappeared under a cloud cover as the vehicle climbed to heights Stan would associate with commercial aircraft rather than taxicabs.  

All the while Adam wondered if he’d missed any clues.  Wasn’t what this was all about in the end?  A town known for weirdness, and clues to what it all meant?  Adam’s mind started to race.  

The giant S in the woods.

The Mystery Shack’s contents in the hidden basement.  

_When he hollers, I swear, I think I hear stampedes outside._

The patch of uncovered soil.

 

 _Damn it_ , Adam thought as they got closer and closer.  _The Journals were restored and available through the Legacy Database.  If I hadn’t had that exchange with Ford_ —

“Hey, Poindexter,” Stan nudged him.  “Stay with us, okay?”

Adam cleared his throat.  “We’ll be there soon.”  

The Autocab landed, And Joy, ran to the house.  “Mike?  Baby, are you there?” Joy called up to the stairs.  Adam walked past her up the stairs.  Stan noticed that pointed object in his hand again, as he followed him up to the attic.

“You gonna tell me what’s up?” He asked.  “And why you got a zap gun in your hand?”

“I keep thinking I’d missed something,” Adam replied, quickly grabbing a small object from a dresser.  “Out in the woods.  It wasn’t all peace and quiet out here, was it Stanley?”

Stan didn’t meet Adam’s gaze.  “No.”

“Joy told me that the baby’s crying sent something out here scrambling, or so she thought,” Adam continued.  “And the things that giant letter S was witness to…”

Stan was lost in Adam’s words.  

“He’s not down here, Adam!” Joy cried.  

Adam grabbed Stan’s hand and put the gun in his hand.  “You ever fire a gun?” Adam asked him.  The color drained from Stan’s face, partly because of the expression on Adam’s.  _Talk about a family resemblance_ , he thought.  

“ _Have you_?!” Adam exclaimed.

“Y-Yeah, I have.  This ain’t no Winchester, though.”

“No,” Adam agreed.  “Are there any more hidden areas that your brother’s carved out of these woods?”

 

Adam and Stan walked down the stairs to meet Joy.  “His sword’s gone,” Joy told Adam.  “He’d never take it down unless—“

“Joy, Can you get your Bob unit up and running?” Adam asked.  

“Sure,” she replied.  “Lemme get the pouch.”

April looked around the living room.  “There’s no sign of a struggle, Adam,” she said.  “He might be out for a walk, is all.”

“Never takes the sword down, unless there was an emergency,” Adam repeated Joy’s words.  “April, I need you to replicate yourself a little self-defense,” Adam called to her.  

April nodded, and walked into the kitchen.  

A moment later, and she was sheathing a Japanese sword and slung the strap over her shoulder.  “It’ll do,” she’ll said.  

“Lead the way, Stan,” Adam said.  

Stan walked over a ways through the clearing behind the shack.  On the other side…

Was a hole in the ground.

“Huh,” Stan said.  “I thought they said it was a fake pine tree.”

“Fake Pines,” Adam muttered, and looked down.

It was about ten meters down.

“Here I am!” Joy’s voice announced, amplified through a speaker.  Stan felt the thump on the ground before he actually saw it.

“Jesus fucking Belgian Waffles!” he exclaimed.  It was—

It was a robot.  Nothing too sophisticated, and with a sensor unit where one would expect a head, and arm manipulators and backward-bending legs around a rotund center, it leaned down toward the three of them.

“Say hello to Bob, Stan,” Joy announced again.  

“Joy, are you in there?” Stan called.

“I’m the pilot, yep!” Joy exclaimed.  And nestled in her baby pouch in front of her, Theo wriggled and moved his hands contentedly.  “And I got my li’l co-pilot with me too!”

“Can you get down there safely?” Adam asked.

“Maybe,” she replied.  “Give me some room to work the thrusters!”  

From the bottom of the robot’s sturdy feet, white light seemed to lift Joy up and down into the round chasm.  

Adam peered down.  “Now it’s our turn.”

Stan glared at Adam.  “I forgot my jetpack, future boy.”

“That’s all right,” Adam replied, and brandished a small object in his palm.  “I didn’t.”

Stan took a step back as Adam exclaimed, “ARMOR…UP!”  As pewter and red plates of armor appeared over his body, Stan looked on, dumbfounded.  Finally, the armor formed a swept-back, aerodynamic helmet over his head, and his face disappeared behind a T-shaped mask.  It lit up.

“Don’t be afraid, Stanley,” Adam said, holding up his arms.  “I’ll get you down there.”

Stan found it hard to move his feet, but Adam crossed the distance.  

“Stan!” Adam exclaimed from inside his armor. His voice had a tinny, staticky timber, but his intensity came through.  

“Are you _shitting_ me?!” Stan exclaimed.  “What kind of Spaceship captain are you, anyway?”

“The kind that got really mega presents for Christmas,” Adam replied, “Now are you coming with us or not?”

Stan nodded, and Adam grabbed him around his middle, and let the thrusters in the heels of his armor do the work.  Slowly, they both came to the bottom. Adam gestured his hand over his face, causing the mask of his helmet to part.  “April!” he called up to the top of the chasm.

April peered down.  Her hand had popped the katana out of the sheath about an inch, at the ready.  

“Stay here.  If anything shows up…”

“Slice and dice,” April shouted down.  “Got it.”

“If it gets _too_ dicey,” Adam warned.  “Run.  Alert my ship for an emergency beam-out.”

“Be careful!” April said.

“I’m always careful!” Adam cried.  “Now, let’s see what’s down here.”

“Adam, I think Ford did some more redecorating,” Joy said from inside Bob.  

Adam looked.  Beyond an arch was a smaller room, vaguely tube-shaped, but nearly empty.  There were some papers and a nub of a pencil on a simple wooden table, but nothing else.  On one side was a pressure seal with a circular handle.  

Adam could hear banging on the other side.

“Omigod, Adam!  It’s Mike!” Joy exclaimed.  From her controls the sensors were giving her the silhouette of a man, lanky and tall like Mike.  

“Stan,” Adam said, moving toward the seal.  “Cover me.”

Stan held up the phaser Adam gave him, not quite sure about handling it.  Adam took his gauntleted hands and grabbed the handle.  With the strength the armor gave him, he yanked the entire seal free from its hinges, and threw it aside.  Joy exited Bob from a hatch in the front, and grabbed the pages from the table before looking in.

“Finally!” the voice of Mike Gamling came from the other side of the chamber.  He appeared to be stuck in a crawlspace, somewhat similar to the Jeffries Tubes that were built into Starfleet ships to access utility spaces. Adam pulled him out, and he got to his feet.  Just as Adam had let him go, Joy glomped onto Mike, with Theo still in his pouch between them.

“What were you doing in there?” She cried, her voice muffled.  

“You wouldn’t believe me,” Mike said.  Adam didn’t notice at first, but Stan did.  

Mike never took his eyes off of Theo.

Joy gave the pages to Adam to scan.  Sure enough, the writing matched that of Ford’s.  He showed the pages to Stan, and nodded.  “This is new, though” Stan remarked.  “These aren’t pages out of his journals.”

“Like the pages from the alien ship?” Adam asked, and Stan nodded.

“All this encryption,” Adam sighed.  “Ah, well what’s the point of having a ship with a big old computer if it can’t crack codes?”

Mike circled around them, attempting to glance at the pages.  “More pages, you say?” He asked.  “From the Author?”

Joy’s head snapped up.  Theo never broke eye contact with his father.  

“It’s a good thing we found you in time,” Stan said, oblivious to the strange glance Joy gave her husband.  “I remember Dipper telling me once about some strange creatures down here.”

Mike whipped around to look at Stan, and cocked his head. He cracked his neck.  “Dipper.”

Theo’s hands fell to the side of Joy’s pouch. He sniffled.  

“Mike…are you okay, baby?” Joy asked.  She made a face, as if she were straining a muscle.  

“I’m fine, _sweetie_ ,” Mike replied. The timbre in his voice was wrong.  Mike Gamling, ever since he’d left the Rohirrim, was one of the most laid-back men Adam had ever met.   Theo began to fuss. 

“How _is_ Dipper, by the way?” Mike asked, which caused them all to react.  “And the sister?”

By this point, Theo was done with fussing and was all-out bawling.  Mike put his hands to his ears and practically screeched,  “Silence that creature!” 

Stan was the first to point his phaser at him.  “Nuh-uh,” He said, circling around to get in front of Joy and Theo.  “I don’t think so, buddy.”

“What have you done with Michael Gamling?” Adam demanded.  The mask of his helmet snapped back into place.

“Probably waking up somewhere with a roaring headache,” the thing with Mike’s face replied.  Theo never stopped crying, to its annoyance.

“Isn’t it time you turned into something else?” Joy said angrily.  

“But this form is so _pleasing_ ,” it said, distorting Mike’s features just enough to repulse Joy, who looked like she was ready to retch.  “Why, you gave me a _hug_ and everything!”

“You’re not our first shape-shifter,” Adam said.  “Stan, set your phaser to setting 7.”

“Not your first?” the creature exclaimed, turning Mike’s head a full turn around with a rubbery neck.  “There are others?”

“At least one, out in Limbo,” Adam muttered.  “And I know that Mo doesn’t like this setting one bit.  It takes him forever to reform.  Any higher a setting and your natural form gets pretty much cooked.”  With that, he held up his arm, where pieces of his gauntlet rearranged themselves into a cannon.  Blue light glowed from its barrel.

“Adam, close quarters combat is bad for ten-month-olds?” Joy reminded him.  

“Get you and him back into Bob!” Adam exclaimed.  “That thing have weapons?”

“I—“ Joy turned and ran to her mech, with a now-screaming Theo in tow.  The creature with Mike’s face extended an arm, which was now extending, changing, elongating itself into an amber substance, a pseudopod which latched onto Joy’s own arm.  She screamed, placing her free arm over Theo, struggling to get free. 

Adam and Stan trained their weapons on the shapeshifter.  “I don’t know if I can shoot without hitting Joy!” Stan cried

Adam never had a chance to reply.  From outside the bunker, he heard an electrical whine and a roaring cry.  

All Stan could see was shining steel, as it sliced through the gelatinous substance of the creature’s arm.  It slid down Joy’s side.  Joy for her part, tore out of the bunker, screeching her disgust.  “EW Get it off GET IT OFF!” she wailed.

“Oh.  Wow.  You cut off my arm,” the creature flatly said.  The arm reformed somewhat into a human form.  “That was super effective.”

 

And then the shapeshifter promptly exploded.

 

In a burst of protoplasm, splattering everywhere, including all over Stan and Adam.  The two of them were too shocked to do anything but stand there, dripping with goo.  

Stan stood there, with his phaser out.  He was breathing hard, his eyes wide open.  

And next to him, breathing just as heavily, was the honest-to-goodness Mike Gamling.  His sword, from his days as Marshal of the Mark, in both hands.  He looked Stan up and down, and roughly said, “Nice shot.”

Stan stood there, and simply said.  “I’m completely covered in…”

Joy raced back in.  Theo remained in front of her, and much happier.  

“Baby!” Mike exclaimed, and endured his Attack Hug.  

“That was the worst!” Joy said.  “Even worse than with Mo!” She burst into tears, and sniffled.  “It’s not fair!  I _already_ cried today!”

 

Adam looked at them.  Everyone was well shaken, but otherwise okay.  Even Theo, who moved his arms toward his daddy.  “Well, I don’t know about you,” Adam said, still armor-clad.  “But I think we could use a good hosing off.”

 

***

 

For Adam, it was a literal hosing off before he would retract his armor.  For Stan and Mike, it was a hot shower.

 

April considered the unused katana as she and Joy sat in the kitchen.  “It’s still not as good as mine,” She said.  “I don’t suppose you’d—?”

“Oh, no,” Joy said, waving the sword away.  “I prefer fighting with giant robots.”

“Okay.  This is going back in the replicator.”  With that, she got up and placed the sword back into the replicator tray and pressed the button to reabsorb the matter.

“That’s that,” She sighed, and returned to the table.  

Stan shuffled into the kitchen, and patted Joy’s shoulder.  “It’s a little late for pancakes, kid,” he muttered as he went for the replicator himself.  

“I’m traumatized.  I deserve comfort food,” Joy said simply.

Next to Joy was Theo in his high chair.  “And so does my little hero!” she said toward the baby, who was making a fair amount of mess with his macaroni and cheese.  

“Adam theorized that it was Theo’s fussing that was keeping the creature away thus far,” April explained to Stan.  “He was literally keeping them safe.”

Joy explained.  “Something about Theo’s infant mental state affecting the shape shifter, or…”

Stan smiled at her. “Or?”

“Or it really couldn’t stand my baby’s crying,” Joy replied, and laughed.  So did Theo, spitting his macaroni all over his tray.  

“That’s right, baby,” Joy said to Theo.  You saved the day!  You and Grunkle Stan.”

“Gunkle,’ Theo replied.

April’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.  “Omigod!” she breathed.  “Was that—?”

Joy tilted her head at April.  “Oh, no, sweetie.  His first word was—“

“Daddy!”  Theo exclaimed.

Mike stood at the doorway, towel still over his shoulder.  “How are we all doing?” he asked.

“I’m honestly a little concerned how fine I am,” April said.  “I think hanging with the Guys desensitized me to assorted strangeness.”

“Ditto,” Stan said.

“I’m just thinking about laundry day,” Joy said, despairingly.  “The real trauma lies ahead.”

Stan found Adam in the living room, leaning against the dinosaur skull.  The little device that created that armor of his was between his thumb and forefinger. 

“Kid?”

“Hmm.”  Adam didn’t look up.

“When do you have to go back to work?”

“I got my orders from Command,” Adam replied.  “Leave is up in another week or so.  Then we go to a planet called Bajor—well, specifically, the space station that’s located in that system.”

“Any specific reason?” Stan asked.  

“Um,” Adam began.  “See, just after that incident with my first officer, the Bajorans had more or less driven out a foreign occupation by the Cardassians, and invited the Federation to administer the space station in orbit.”

“Okay.”

“The first week, the crew had discovered a wormhole—a stable wormhole—that led to the Gamma Quadrant of the galaxy.  As a result, the system’s become a lot more prominent as traffic through the wormhole would commence.”

“This wormhole is like…”

“It’s a passage—a shortcut, if you will—to a completely different part of the galaxy,” Adam explained.  “Tens of thousands of light-years away.”

“Stable,” Stan pressed.  “Because they're not usually?”

“It’s stable because it’s artificial.  It’s the home of alien beings that the Bajorans have come to believe are divine.”

“Oh.” Stan said.

Adam brightened and looked up at Stan.  “Yep!  And so the ship is going to deliver supplies and personnel.”

“Wormhole,” Stan murmured to himself.  Now he was avoiding Adam’s gaze.  

“Hey, Stan,” Adam said.  Even without sensing, Adam knew that Stan was ready to go somewhere.  He’d been made to feel like a tourist on his own home planet, and Adam had no desire to keep him cooped in Joy’s Shack, Ford or no Ford.

Stan didn’t respond.  

 

“Do you wanna go to Deep Space Nine?”


	6. Twilight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan takes up several offers, and Adam gets back to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to revise tags from Gen to M/M because Fili is very persuasive :3

**_Twilight_ **

 

 

“I take it it’s been awhile?”

 

Stan sighed and rolled over in the bed.  “Well, yeah, _obviously_.  Four hundred years or so.”  

He was in Dr.—well, not in this context—in Fíli’s bedroom—in his bed—in his apartment in San Francisco.  The apartment was bristling with artifacts from another world, with hexagonal designs in iron and in wood, and an impressive collection of melee weaponry on one particular wall.  Fíli wasn't kidding when he said he came from a medieval world.  

The bearded man moved to Stan’s side of the bed, and put his arm on Stan’s chest.  “I meant for _you_.”

“Nothing really solid,” Stan admitted.  “And before—“  He clammed up at that. 

“Go on,” Fíli prodded.  

“Can we talk about something else?” Stan asked the Khazad.  

“Like what?  The weather?”

Stan pursed his lips.  “Talk to me about that music in your waiting room.”

Fíli chuckled, and stretched out.  “Ohh.  Getting old.”

Stan smiled and stretched as well.  “I know that feeling.”

“Maybe, but at least you have thirty years before you get to feel this way again,” Fíli replied.

“Don’t change the subject,” Stan said, and put his arms behind his head.  He didn’t know why he took Fíli up on his less-than-subtle offer.  Probably because it _was_ less-than-subtle, because unlike his new great-times-a-million niece and nephew, he knew what it was like to have to struggle.  And what it was like to navigate a new and alien world.  

Except it was him.  Centuries have passed and now he was the alien.  The one who didn’t fit.

Was this what it was like for Ford, those thirty years?

“That music was performed by, well, me and my brother, in part.  It was a reunion of sorts,” Fíli recalled.  “The few of us who survived.”  Now it was Fíli’s turn to turn away.  “We played this music to remember, and to honor, the memory of those we’d lost on that day.”  Fíli scoffed, and started to sing to himself, thinly.

 

_“We must away, ere break of day,_

_To win our harps and gold from_ him _!”_

 

Stan placed a hand on the smaller man’s back.  There was a long, ugly scar running from his shoulder all the way down his ribs.

  The contact brought him back from his reverie.  “We’re not always proud of what we’ve been, Stanley.  We’ve been hucksters.  We’ve been travelers.  We’ve even been warriors and then corpses.”

Stan stared straight up at the ceiling of Fíli’s apartment.  “Yeah.”

“But I have no regrets of going to Erebor.  I followed my kin and King to retake that mountain from the worm within.  It was worth it.  And he would have said the same.”

“You’ll have to tell me that story sometime,” Stan said. 

 Fíli turned and kissed him on the neck, in the place Stan enjoyed the most.  “You have to play fair,” Fíli chided him.  “A story for a story; that’s the Dwarves’ way.”

Stan moved Fíli’s mouth from his neck to his own.  The visit had been mostly this; kissing, gentle lovemaking, and peaceful sleep.  True, the two of them could get into something much more…adventurous, but that wasn’t exactly what the Doctor prescribed.  

Stan broke away.  “We’re not always proud of what we’ve been, either, buddy.”

Fíli snuggled up next to Stan, and rubbed his leg up against Stan’s.  “But we’re not what we used to be.  Once you are changed, you can’t go back to what you once were.  A wise man taught me that.”

“Mmm,” Stan rumbled, and closed his eyes, enjoying the sensations of Fíli’s touch.  “I think someone wants to go again.”

“When do you have to get back to Oregon?” Fíli asked.  

“What time is it?” Stan asked absently.  “Hell, what _day_ is it?”

“I think it’s time to get up,” Fíli admitted.  “Time for one last shower, and one last breakfast.”

The last shower was the best shower.  Fíli’s and Stan’s height difference was just enough to make it interesting, at least.  And breakfast consisted of…

“Hot Belgian waffles!” Fíli exclaimed, presenting it to Stan, who couldn’t help but chuckle.

“What?” Fíli asked.  “Isn’t this your favorite?  You kept exclaiming it all through our…”

“I’m not saying you’re wrong,” Stan said, unable to keep the grin off his face.  “But I used to say that instead of cursing in front of the kids.”

“… _Oh_.” Fíli said.  “I _wondered_ why you shouted it at the moment you—“

“—Right,” Stan affirmed.

“Oh well; grub’s grub, dig in!” the Dwarf said with a shrug.

 

 

Fili saw him off at the Tram Station.  He took Stan’s hands in his own and gave them a quick kiss.  “This was fun,” 

“Thanks, Fili,” Stan said.  “I don’t think you know how much I needed… _that_.”

“Oh, I do,” Fili said, with a wink.  “I hope our paths meet again. We can visit my prude of a brother and make him turn all sorts of colors with our bad behavior.”

“Hey, I’m in the system now!” Stan said.  “You can call me up whenever.”

“All right.  Give those Reids my love, won’t you?”

With that, Fili gave Stan one last pat on the cheek and turned and left him.

 

 

Back at the Shack, Joy had made her final inventory of Stan’s exhibits.  They agreed that they would all stay down in the basement for the moment.  Joy didn’t particularly feel like resurrecting the Mystery Shack, but the thought had crossed her mind to turn its old museum space into a showroom for her robots.  Before he left for Frisco, Stan had suggested a fancy turntable for Bob.

Then she showed him Travis.

Meanwhile, she set up a living space for Stan in the Library.  

Well, it wasn’t the library anymore.  All of her bookshelves had found themselves in the first basement, which contained lots of materials that she surmised originally came from the Shapeshifter’s bunker.  She set up a guest room for Stan, which he could stay in indefinitely.  

 

Stan walked in, duffel over his shoulder.  He looked around and called.  “Hey, Joy?  Mike?”

“In the kitchen, Stan!” Mike called.

Mike was putting something in a box when Stan wandered in.  He placed the duffel on the kitchen table, next to Theo’s high chair.  “Gunkle!” Theo exclaimed.

“Hey, kid,” Stan said, and ruffled his hair.  Theo giggled.  

“How’s the good doctor?” Mike asked.  

“He is good and improving,” Stan replied, and cocked an eyebrow.

“Oh.  Well,” Mike managed, as color crept up to his cheeks.  “Sounds about right.”

“Hey Mike, I got a question,” Stan said.  He sat down.

“All right.  Ask away.”  Mike finished with the box and set it aside.

“I noticed that your sword looks a lot like the souvenirs that Fili has up at his place,” Stan began.  “He said he came from a planet that was from medieval times.  Is…that where _you’re_ from?” 

Mike chuckled and turned around to look at him.  “Nah, man, I’m from Mojave.”

“Really?” Stan remarked.  “I knew a guy from Mojave once.”

“Yeah, but the sword… _That_ came from Arda.  Just like Fili and Kili did.”

“Arda.  That’s that planet that Adam brings up all the time.”

“Adam’s a goddamn hero on that planet, and don’t let him tell you different,” Mike said.  “Him and Josh both.”

“Oh.”  Stan kept seeing flashes of something in Adam; the intensity with which he gave him the phaser, the way he looked when he’d armored up.  The vague, almost dreamlike memory of briefly waking in that alien chamber, with two figures doing battle with the security drones.  

Stan wondered what happened on Arda that could make him switch from thoughtful explorer into hardened warrior at the drop of a fez.  

At any rate, it was Adam’s story to tell.  “He’s my hero, too,” Mike continued on.  “He brought me home, introduced me to his sister, and the rest is history.”

“Kid’s full of surprises,” Stan muttered.  “I just…”

Mike looked at him expectantly.

“I hate to admit it, but I think Ford picked the right guy to find me,” Stan sighed.  “And he picked someone who’s just…”

“Who’s just what?” Adam said, popping in the kitchen.  He was dressed in a semi-casual Starfleet uniform, with a suede jacket covering a grey tunic.  

“Who’s just dreamy in their Starfleet duds,” Stan quickly said, patting Adam on the cheek.

“Did you get all your clothes scanned?” Adam asked him.

“Yup,” Stan replied.  “Got it all on this little green flash drive.”

“That’s an isolinear chip,” Adam corrected.

“At my age, you’re lucky I know what a flash drive is,” Stan countered.  

“Fair enough,” Adam said.  

April popped her head in.  “Oh, good, I caught you, Stan.  I wanted to make sure it was okay…”

Stan raised his considerable eyebrows.  “Okay for what?”

“I found this in this box labeled “Questionable merchandise”, and here it is!”  April showed them a little figure of a gray-haired man wearing Stan’s fez and his black suit. Adam put a hand to his mouth. April then flicked the figure, sending his head bobbling everywhere.

Stan looked at the box.  “Yep, that’s his handwriting all right.”

“Such nice penmanship,” April noted.  “It’s a lost art.”

“I’m assuming you want the bobblehead,” Stan said, and gave the box back to her.  “I don’t think I can give these things away on _this_ planet.”

“I’m glad I got your permission, because I was gonna scan the thing and replicate it when I got back on the road,” April confessed.  “I lost my old Mr. Mystery bobblehead in the fire.”

Stan’s eyebrows went back up, but he decided not to follow up.  April’s 20th century wasn’t quite the same as his.

“Are you joining us on the ship?” Stan asked her instead.

“I don’t know,” April replied and stuck Adam with a sly look.  “I haven’t been asked.”

“You told me you were doing a story on Eminiar VII,” Adam said, scratching the back of his head.

“I can get there from Bajor,” April said.  “I’m well ahead of my deadlines.”

“Well, then, come on board,” Stan exclaimed.  “We’re expecting you!”

April pointed a finger at Stan.  “It’ll be nice to have a guy who gets all my references,” She said.  

“What about you, Stinkerbelle?” Adam asked.  “Do you guys want to see Stan off?”

“Let me think about that for a second,” Joy said.  “Hmmm…no.”

“Ditto,” Mike agreed.

“Gunkle!” Theo chimed in.

“Well, that’s unanimous,” Stan said, and ruffled Theo’s hair again.  “Come here, Stinkerbelle.”

Joy’s face was delight as she gave Stan a warm, non-attacking hug.  “See, that’s how I know you’re part of the family,” she said, and teared up. 

Mike took Stan’s hand.  “When you come back around, we can take you to Bozeman,” Mike promised.  “Show you the statue and the Pig Farm.”

Joy in turn embraced Adam and April.  Adam went and put a big kiss on Theo’s cheek.

“So, Adam,” Stan asked.  “What do _you_ think about being an uncle?”

“I think I have some big boots to fill,” Adam replied.  “But I hope when he’s older he looks up to me like Mabel and Dipper looked up to you.  _Mediterranean_?”

Aldor’s voice crackled through his comm badge.  “This is Aldor, Captain.”

 

“Three to beam up”

 

As they dematerialized from their kitchen, Joy and Mike heaved a sigh of relief.  Having company over was fun, but it was better when it was just them again.  

“You never told me how you got free from that shape-shifter,” Joy said.  He’d tied you up, didn’t he?

“He did, but I had a friend untie me in the woods,” Mike explained.  “I’ve told you about my friend Shmebulok, right?”


End file.
